A Great Question

What do we owe to all living beings?

Non-harming, compassion, graded love or one body with all things: how far the circle of concern extends.

Framing

Most ethical traditions begin with what we owe to other people. The contemplative traditions often go further, and ask what we owe to every being that can suffer, or to everything that lives. Their answers range from the Jain monk who sweeps the path so as not to tread on an insect to the Confucian who loves his own parents first and others in proportion.

The question is tied to the question of unity. If all beings share one nature, or are one body, then harming another is harming oneself, and compassion is simply seeing truly. If beings are distinct, care may still be owed to them, but it must be grounded differently: in their capacity to suffer, in a divine command, or in the relationships that bind us.

The perspectives below differ in how far the circle extends, and in why.

Perspectives

Voices from several traditions, each in its own terms. They are set side by side to be compared, not ranked.

Jainism, Mahāvīra
Scholarship
Every living being, down to the smallest, has a soul that wants to live and fears pain; to harm any of them is to bind oneself with karma. Non-harming is the first and greatest vow.
Sources: Gaina Sûtras
Buddhism, Śāntideva
Scholarship
Suffering is suffering, whoever’s it is; since self and other are not truly separate, the bodhisattva exchanges self for other and works for the good of all beings.
Sources: The Path of Light
Confucianism, Mencius
Scholarship
Everyone has a heart that cannot bear the suffering of others; but love has degrees, beginning with one’s parents and extending outward, and a love without distinctions would deny one’s own father.
Sources: The Works of Mencius
Neo-Confucianism, Wang Yangming
Scholarship
The great person forms one body with heaven, earth and all things: their humaneness is moved by a child in danger, a bird’s cry, a broken tile; selfish desire alone makes us separate.
Sources: Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings
Modern philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer
Scholarship
Compassion is the foundation of morality: in it we recognize our own inner being in another, and it extends to animals as well as human beings.
Sources: The World as Will and Idea

Reflect

Which living things do you not count, and why?

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “What do we owe to all living beings?” Question. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-do-we-owe-to-all-living-beings.
Chicago (note): “What do we owe to all living beings?” question, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-do-we-owe-to-all-living-beings.
MLA: “What do we owe to all living beings?” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-do-we-owe-to-all-living-beings.
BibTeX: @misc{questions-what-do-we-owe-to-all-living-beings, title = {{What do we owe to all living beings?}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Question. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/questions/what-do-we-owe-to-all-living-beings} }

What do we owe to all living beings?

Framing

Perspectives

Jainism, Mahāvīra

Buddhism, Śāntideva

Confucianism, Mencius

Neo-Confucianism, Wang Yangming

Modern philosophy, Arthur Schopenhauer

Reflect

Concepts involved

Traditions

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