Cognitive Scaffold

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MENTAL MODEL · M5235

Universal Love / Jian Ai

Universal Love / Jian Ai
CultureHigh supportChinese Philosophy
Included
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Updated 2026-08-04

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

A central doctrine of Mohism, advanced by Mozi in opposition to the Confucian view that love should be graded by relationship, starting with family. Mozi argued that disorder arises when people care only for their own group and injure outsiders, and that treating others' states and persons as one's own dissolves the conflict. The doctrine is not a claim that feeling is identical for everyone; it is a demand for symmetry in standards, so that rules apply equally to oneself and to others. Modern large-scale organizations face the same problem, since relations among strangers cannot rest on personal ties.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Symmetry test: apply the same standard to yourself and to others before deciding. - Rule over favor: allocate resources by stated criteria rather than by closeness. - Mutual benefit: design exchanges so both sides gain, instead of one extracting from the other.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Cooperation among strangers cannot rely on personal loyalty, because there is no relationship to invoke. When standards are applied asymmetrically, each party expects to be disadvantaged and preemptively defects, which produces the disorder the doctrine describes. Symmetric rules make the outcome predictable regardless of who is involved, so participants can cooperate without knowing each other. The mechanism converts a moral demand into an institutional one: impartial standards, not warmer feelings, are what sustain large-scale collaboration.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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    zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%BC%E7%88%B1ZH · Explicit
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