Robert Allinson. The Philosophical Influences of Mao Zedong.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

1 – Introduction to the Philosophical Mao

The Good and the Bad Mao

Traditional Western, Traditional Chinese Philosophy and Mao

Mao’s Individual Thought versus the Official Philosophy of Mao

The pre-Marxist Mao and its Continued Influence

The Place of Frederick Paulsen’s A System of Ethics in Mao’s Thought

Mao and Confucianism: A Preview

The Influence of Philosophy on Mao’s Thinking

2 – Mao’s Youthful Philosophical Development

The Influence of both Western Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy

Mao’s Introduction to Western Philosophy and the Ideas of the West

3 – Mao in the Margins: Mao’s Philosophy of Egoism

The Influence of Paulsen’s A System of Ethics

The Significance of ‘Mao in the Margins’

Paulsen’s, A System of Ethics

The Continuity of Mao’s Thought

Mao’s Views on Ethics

The Idea of the Great Man and the Primacy of the Will

Mao Collapses Moral Instinct into the Instinct for Self-preservation

Mao on Aristotle and Confucius: A Prelude

Mao on Schopenhauer

Mao on Buddhism and Mohism

Mao’s Individualism

Mao and Zhuangzi

Synopsizing Mao’s Views of Egoism and Ethics from his Marginal Notes

The Egoism–Altruism Conundrum

Mao on Aesthetics and Ethics

Mao on Good and Evil

Synopsizing Mao’s Views on Individualism and Society from his Marginal Notes

4 – Mao’s Early Philosophical Influences and Reflections

Confucian and Aristotelian Influences

The Impact of Aristotle’s Ethics on Mao

Aristotle and Confucius

Mao and Mencius

Confucius’s Idea of the Self

Mao’s Interpretation of Confucius

Mao and Confucianism: Universal Love versus Familial Love

Confucius’s Central Ethical Principle

Filial Piety

Mao and Confucianism

Mao and Mencius

Mao on Following One’s Impulses

Mao’s Key Interpretation of Mencius

Mao’s Philosophy of Egoism and his Early Metaphysics

Mao’s Early Metaphysics

The Question of Suicide

Mao Does Not Subscribe to Absolute Evil

Mao as an Existentialist

Mao on Happiness and Virtue

Mao and Nietzsche

The Child is the Father of the Man

Mao and Zhuangzi

5 – The Blend of the Influence of Chinese and Western Philosophy on Mao’s Thought and Parallels in China’s Social and Economic Development

Mao on Confucianism and Paulsen’s Voluntarism

Mao and the Yijing

Mao’s Departure from the Classical Chinese Philosophical Tradition

The Influence of Laozi’s Notorious Chapter Nineteen on Mao’s Cultural Revolution

Mao and Hobbes

Mao and Locke

Mao and Marxism

The Hegelian Dialectic

Mao’s Dialectical Thinking

Flashback to the Beginnings of Mao’s Thought

The Confucian Revival and the Dialectic

6 – Mao’s Marxist Thought and the Yijing

Non-antagonistic and Antagonistic Contradictions

Mao on Endless Struggle

The Principal and the Secondary Aspects of Contradiction

Is Mao Influenced by Soviet Sources?

The Superstructure and the Base: Mao’s Inversion of Classical Marxism

What if Other Scholars Wrote the Works Attributed to Mao?

7 – Mao as Metaphysician and Literatus

Mao as Metaphysician and Philosopher of Science

Is Mao a Western or a Chinese Philosopher?

Mao as Literatus

8 – Mao’s Contributions to Philosophy

Mao’s Philosophical Contributions to Marxism

Mao’s Reduction of All Laws of Dialectics to One

Mao’s Philosophical Contributions to Philosophy Proper

The Primacy of the Will

Mao’s Deviation from Confucius

Mao’s Notion of Continuous Struggle without Resolution

Theory and Practice

Mao and Heracleitus

Mao’s Use of Complementary rather than Contradictory Opposites