Classical Chinese Philosophy

What is an emotion? Recent studies of cultural psychology suggest that there is no universally shared way of drawing the boundaries around the domain of emotion. In early Chinese philosophy, the abstract category of emotion that superordinates joy, anger, and sadness is sometimes identified with the term qing. This paper extracts, crystallizes, and examines the conception of qing from the excavated “Xing Zi Ming Chu” (XZMC) text, the most important philosophical work on emotion from early China. The paper argues that (...) XZMC presents a philosophically profound way of thinking about emotion, focusing on its normative role, cognitive features, and functional plasticity. Moreover, the paper explores how the ancient view offers a critical lens to reassess the prevailing assumption that emotions are first and foremost internal states with phenomenal and/or intentional characteristics. The paper highlights the potential for early Chinese philosophy to enrich contemporary conceptualization of emotion and vice versa, suggesting a more cross-cultural approach to philosophizing the category of emotion. (shrink)

After decades of attempts, comparisons between classical Chinese and Greco-Roman philosophy have had limited success. While there have been some productive lines of inquiry (for example, comparing early Confucian ethics to virtue ethics as represented by Aristotle), the overall record is disappointing because concepts such as Plato’s theory of forms or Aristotle’s emphasis on syllogism have proved incommensurable with most classical Chinese ways of thinking. But much of the problem can be attributed to the habit of comparing Chinese thinkers to (...) Plato and Aristotle without asking whether they are the most suitable philosophers for this purpose. For most of the twentieth century, Hellenistic philosophy was scarcely considered. Yet very recently, provocative similarities have been identified between Chinese philosophy and Stoicism, especially Epictetus. I shall argue that these parallels are even more significant than previous scholarship has recognized (I hope to convince the reader that some of them are indeed staggering), and conclude by asking why we find such parallels in the first place. My claim will not be direct or even indirect transmission; this is a case, to borrow a distinction from evolutionary biology, of analogous rather than homologous development. -/- . (shrink)

This paper examines the notion of shen in the context of early Chinese ritual and religion in practice. In ancient China significant conceptual parallels exist between the ways in which abstract notions such as shen" spirit " are interpreted by a philosophical tradition on the one hand, and their transformation in ritual and religious practice on the other. Following a discussion of attitudes towards the spirit world among the masters of philosophy in Warring States China, we examine sacrificial performance as (...) a multimedia event that offered multiple routes of access to the spirits. Rather than addressing spirits as embodiments of a pre-existing order or pantheon, we argue that in early Chinese religion, sacrificial procedure was conceived of primarily as a progressive search or quest for spirit presence through performance. The latter was aimed at establishing a sensory bond between the ritual participants and spirits addressed. (shrink)

One longstanding criticism of Chinese thought is that is not truly “philosophical” because it lacks viable protocols of argumentation. Thus it qualifies at best as “wisdom”; Confucius, for example, might provide valuable guidance, or thoughtful epigrams to ponder, but nothing in the way of formal reasoning that would permit his audience to reconstruct and reconsider his arguments in any conceivable context. This criticism seems to be based on the tacit premise that acceptable argumentation must be deductive, whereas most famous Chinese (...) arguments tend to be non-deductive. This paper will survey the types of non-deductive argumentation commonly found in Chinese philosophy. One of the most prolific is appeal to example, which is the basis of the strong interest in anecdotes as a genre of philosophical literature from the Springs and Autumns at least through the Six Dynasties. There are important examples of deductive argument as well, which will be briefly reviewed. Whether these observations are sufficient to rescue Chinese thought from the wilderness of “wisdom” and enshrine it in the halls of “philosophy” will be left for the reader to decide, but a conception of “philosophy” that can account for Chinese thought is naturally more interesting than one that cannot. -/- . (shrink)

In early China, the mandate to rule or "Mandate of Heaven" is of divine origin. However, the ruler is an ordinary human being whose right to govern can be revoked by the supreme deity should he fall short in his duties towards his subjects, and neglect his role of benevolent guardian who has to provide for and ensure acceptable life conditions for his subjects. This concept has led some early thinkers to theorize the admissibility for the people to rebel against (...) an unjust ruler. The present article problematizes the existence of a proper "right to rebel" in early Chinese philosophical discourse with focus on the Mengzi, where such a theory seems to be more prominently addressed. Through the analysis of selected pertinent passages drawn from pre-imperial received texts, the article reconstructs a narrative of dissent in ancient Chinese philosophy, further addressing related issues, such as the agency of the people and their role in the rebellious process. (shrink)

It has been argued that in contrast to the West, adherence to the past and sticking to “what is” rather than awareness of the future is an essential part of the Chinese cultural ontology, with political implications to this day. However, this assessment is not compat- ible with the testimony of the classical philosophies. On the contrary, the crisis of tradition due to the breakdown of the Zhou Dynasty as the starting point of all ancient philosophi- cal thought leads not (...) only to a revaluation of the present as a time in its own right but also to partisanship for the new against the old. With the disintegration of the social, political and symbolic order, handed-down certainties are shaken and fresh paradigms of thought emerge that no longer take their orientation from the past. New criteria like the good, the natural, the useful, the practicable and the “near” begin to challenge the normative pri- macy of the past. Actual competence replaces descent as proof of legitimation. History is periodized, and what was valid in antiquity no longer counts as valid in the present. Motifs as distinct as the Golden Rule in Confucius, the impulse of compassion in Mengzi, the exchange of profit in Mohism, Daoist mysticism or the Legalist tactical-strategic calculus share the same space-time orientation towards the here and now. Detaching oneself from the past, the methodical reshaping of the socio-political order in accordance with the de- mands of the present becomes programmatic in the most radical line of thought. The future, although not in nominal form, becomes the target space of reformist endeavour and of hopes for a better world, but also the arena of an apocalyptic dystopia. In distancing itself from the past, ancient China in fact anticipates modern conscious- ness: It takes a critical stance towards tradition and views the world as mouldable by human will. And it even shares the ambivalences of this consciousness, for at the end of the Warring States period, in Legalist ideology, put into practice in the form of the Qin reign of terror, the fetish of the past has turned into the fetish of an all-devouring present. (shrink)

It has been maintained that the possibility of an “open society”, a cornerstone of modernity and a necessary element of democracy, depends on liberal convictions that are not applicable to non-Western cultures and also contradict the Confucian “value orientation”. This assumption is based on a number of problematic premises. On the one hand, there is no unequivocal dependence of the socio-political system on transmitted cultural values, and contemporary Chinese society is much too diverse to be dominated by Confucianism. On the (...) other hand, China’s cultural history, and also Confucianism to-gether with other philosophies, can be brought in in yet another way than as negative factors inhibiting and restricting an open society. Textual evidence suggests that forms of an open society already existed in ancient China and contributed to the emergence of classical political ethics. Despite a number of ambivalences, China’s intellectual herit-age offers enough points of reference to refute the claim that the open society is an alien concept in Chinese culture. -/- . (shrink)

The language used to describe agricultural life in early China was of itself a much used medium for philosophical, social, and political commentary. This paper explores how agriculture figures in the language of philosophical discourse, and what the masters of philosophy can teach us about agriculture and the peasant mode of existence in early China.

The influence of AI has spread globally, intriguing both the East and the West. As a result, some Chinese scholars have explored how AI and Chinese philosophy can be examined together, and have offered some unique insights into AI from a Chinese philosophical perspective. Similarly, we investigate how the two fields can be developed in conjunction, focusing on the popular Confucian philosophy. In this work, we use Confucianism as a philosophical foundation to investigate human-technology relations closely, proposing that a Confucian-imbued (...) AI would reduce prevalent AI ethical issues. Through this discussion, the strong substantivist stance that we will lose control over AI is refuted. We then discuss the practical elements of this project, explaining how passages from the Confucian text of the Analects can be incorporated into AI systems. As an example of a real-world context, psychology is used to demonstrate how the project could be practically applied. Potential criticisms surrounding the proposed project are also identified and challenged. By reducing the negative effects of common AI ethical issues and utilising Confucian principles from The Analects, AI systems can be more ethical, promoting peaceful relations between humans and technology. (shrink)

In the first part of his paper, the author uses a phylogenetic adaptation of Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory to reconstruct different positions of the ethical debate of the Chinese "axial age" as stages of progress towards a postconventional morality. In the second half, various aspects of the controversy revolving around the applicability of Kohlberg's categories to Chinese moral thought are critically examined.

The chapter discusses the value of imagining in two different Asian traditions: West Asian Arabic philosophy and East Asian Chinese philosophy.

In this transdisciplinary investigation, we focus on the invention and development of gunpowder. We aim to answer the questions regarding (1) the inspiration behind the invention, including historical, mythological, and intellectual backgrounds, (2) how it came about in concreto, and (3) its impact on the history of science in China. We argue that the invention has to be viewed in a broader context and that various factors come into play with regard to the above questions. The discussion starts by examining (...) the preconditions of the invention of gunpowder in ancient Chinese mythology, natural philosophy, and the idea of life extension. After that, the invention, its direct contexts, and historical developments during the first millennium CE are investigated. To complement the former analysis of historical worldviews, the modern perspective of chemistry is applied in this context. From the angle of the additional question of “open individuals,” namely as agents of progress, this is also taken into consideration from the perspective of personality analysis. Finally, we investigate how the development of scientific understanding was embedded in the innovative philosophical developments of Song dynasty Neo-Confucianism. In our view, the early Chinese gunpowder research exemplifies the preceding and contemporary development of the scientific stratum that is part of the concept of the “investigation of things” (gewu) in the sense of the teachings of Zhu Xi (1130–1200). (shrink)

20世纪初是德语世界正式出版关于中国哲学史著作的起点。1909—1924年之间德语世界出版了若干关于中国哲学史的论文和专著，通过调查作者们的教育背景和研究成果，以及其代表作的写作背景、内容框架及其影响 ，可以勾勒出这一时期德语学界中国哲学研究的概况。从分析当时德语学界对中国哲学的认识范围和中国哲学史框架构建的一般情况，可以看出欧洲对中国哲学和哲学史研究的一些核心问题所在。前现代中国哲学史在德语地区接 纳和传播的过程与方式，这一至今德国与中国学界尚未涉足的空白领域，值得研究并填补。[The beginning of the twentieth century was the starting point for the production of works on the history of Chinese philosophy in the German-speaking world. Between 1909 and 1924, a number of essays and monographs on the history of Chinese philosophy were published in the German-speaking contexts, and by investigating the educational backgrounds and research results of the authors, as well as the backgrounds of the authors, the frameworks for presenting the content, and the influence of these works, an overview (...) of the study of Chinese philosophy in in the German language during that period can be outlined. By analyzing the scope of knowledge of Chinese philosophy and the general construction of the framework for the history of Chinese philosophy in German-speaking academia at that time, it is possible to discern some of the core issues at stake in the study of Chinese philosophy and the history of philosophy in Europe. The process and manner of the reception and dissemination of the history of pre-modern Chinese philosophy in the German-speaking region, a field that has not yet been addressed sufficiently by German and Chinese academics, deserves to be studied and completed.]. (shrink)

The topic of â oeConflict and Harmonyâ exists across many cultures. As a collection of essays from comparative philosophers around the world, this volume represents the latest research on cross-cultural approaches to issues of conflict and the possibilities of harmony. Composed of papers presented at the 2013 Joint Meeting of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy and the Australasian Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, the book offers contributions from both early career academics and long-standing researchers, with topics spanning (...) various historical times and places. Subjects explored here include approaches to classical understandings of harmony and conflict from different contexts, the connection embodied experience has with conflict and harmony, and political approaches to harmony and conflict. Through discussions of Indian, Chinese, Greek, and contemporary philosophy, these papers represent the cutting edge of comparative work and its overlaps with history, religious studies, and political science. (shrink)

This article clarifies the relationship between moral personhood and moral management in ethical leadership from a Confucian perspective. Drawing from four Confucian classics, this study integrates the leader’s ethical values and activities undertaken to promote virtues in followers. The harmonisation of moral personhood and moral management is facilitated by two cardinal Confucian beliefs: innate human nature and moral self-cultivation. From a Confucian viewpoint, all human beings are endowed with a good nature that enables them to become virtuous persons and leaders. (...) Ethical leaders subdue their selfish desires and extend their natural moral feelings of true goodness, righteousness, propriety and wisdom to others. Moral personhood and moral management are inseparable because to cultivate oneself morally is to help others to become moral persons. By synthesising moral personhood and moral management, a Confucian worldview of ethical leadership contributes to leadership studies in two main ways: safeguarding against the leader’s abuse of power, and advancing organisational change through path-shaping. (shrink)

A crucial tenet of virtue-based or expertise-based theorizing about politics is that there are ways to identify and select morally and epistemically excellent people to hold office. This paper considers historical challenges to this task that come from within Greek and Confucian thought and political practice. Because of how difficult it is to assess character in ordinary settings, we argue that it is even more difficult to design institutions that select for virtue at the much wider political scale. Specifically, we (...) argue that the vast majority of proposals that purport to select for virtue are either (a) unlikely to be effective, (b) not implementable at the scale of most current nations, or (c) have already been incorporated into most democratic states. Thus defenders of meritocratic institutions should take more seriously the practical barriers that will almost certainly arise when trying to implement these proposals at scale. Historical proponents of meritocratic values were well aware of concerns about the feasibility of their political ideals, and we should be too. (shrink)

A rhetoric of refuge and escape is a consistent feature of the world’s great garden traditions. The connections between a desire for escape, need for refuge and disquieting sense that life is no longer what it ought to be gestures to a complex conception of garden appreciation. I explore these connections using Christian, Islamic, and Chinese garden traditions. In them one finds a conception of certain gardens as places of moral refuge from the corruption and failings of the mainstream world.

本书系统探讨陶行知的生活教育理论的形成、发展过程,它的基本思想、基本结构以及它的理论基础与现实意义,并说明它是20世纪中国教育史上的一项最宝贵的创造。.

本书选择了西方哲学主要学派论著中有代表性的文字片断,如:意志主义、新康德主义、直觉主义、分析哲学等。.

刘如瑛(1924~ ),江苏铜山人,扬州大学师范学院中文系古代文学教授,硕士研究生指导教师.

本书收的是90年代特别是后半期的文章,分哲学、马克思主义与文化两部分,包括:《跨世纪的中国哲学走向》、《处在世纪转换中的马克思主义》等。.

本书除分别讨论了实践性与思辨性的关系问题,阶级性与科学性的关系问题,理论思维的原创性和断承性的关系问题三个问题以外,又单独讨论了辩证法问题。.

本书介绍了导论——道教的道与术;唐末至北宋时期的道教思想;南宋至明代中期的道教思想等内容。.

本书阐述了行刑社会化的思想源流、行刑社会化的内涵解读、行刑社会化的立论基础、行刑社会化在中国的实践和困惑等八章内容。.

本书以清新、通俗、思辩的笔调阐述中国智慧的内在精神、基本架构,并对儒家、道家、墨家、法家智慧以及和中国传统智慧向现代化的转化进行了梳理和探讨。.

This book presents the foundations of classical Chinese aesthetic discourse--roughly from the Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages--with the following animating questions: What is art? Why do we produce it? How do we judge it? The arts that garnered the most theoretical attention during this time period were music, poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and the book considers the reasons why these four were privileged. Whereas modern artists most likely consider themselves musicians or poets or calligraphers or painters or sculptors (...) or architects, the pre-modern authors who produced the literature that established Chinese aesthetics prided themselves on being wenren, "cultured people," conversant with all forms of art and learning. Other comparisons with Western theories and works of art are presented at due junctures. Key Features Addresses Chinese aesthetic discourse on its own terms Provides comparisons of key concepts and theories with examples from Western sources Includes more coverage of primary sources than any other English-language book on the subject Each chapter opens with a helpful summary, highlighting the chapter's key themes. (shrink)

Critical thinking (CT) in the Philippine basic education curriculum may be said to be clearly evident in the inclusion of “Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century”. The course is required in the senior high school HUMSS track. CT in Philippine education is likely based or patterned upon U.S.’s “teaching for thinking” program. In Lipman’s survey (2003), the program transitioned to “teaching for critical thinking.” The Philippines was a U.S. colony from 1898 to 1946. This historical and yet (...) colonial reason for teaching CT appears mitigated by a seeming universal recognition of the necessity for teaching critical thinking in schools in every culture. Such recognition appears clear, for example, in Noddings (2016). Despite the existence of such a reason, however, there appears a need to supplement it with ones other than from the perspective of the west. The perspective referred to is that of Confucian ethics. Confucian ethics gives attention to good, sound reasoning (Lai 2006), which suggests an emphasis on CT. Given that, Confucian ethics likely promotes teaching of CT. The proposal here is that in the consideration of reasons or views for teaching CT in the country, a non-western point of view, that of Confucian ethics, be given a hearing. (shrink)

The following essay contains a more general philosophical reflection on the significance and some main elements of pre-modern Confucian learning. The topic is developed by presenting some essential elements in the whole range from explicit (linguistically expressible) knowledge to symbolic aspects as well as the (philosophical) problem of ineffable knowing. The essay starts with the general conception of man which underlies the mainstream of Confucian learning. On that basis, the more explicit contents and easily explicable subjects or branches of classical (...) Confucian learning are mapped out. This becomes the starting point to move on to reflect on a more symbolic layer of Confucian learning. Finally, the core level of Confucian learning is addressed. This presents us with the problem of ineffability. The reference points of the present essay are restricted to some important classical passages as well as the thought of Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472–1529). (shrink)