In this chapter, after telling a concise history of the reception of Mencius’s philosophy before Wang Yangming, I compare Wang Yangming’s thought with Mencius’s at three points: (1) Wang Yangming appropriates Mencius’s statement that “righteousness is internal” to argue against Zhu Xi’s way of self-cultivation. Wang Yangming develops Mencius’s “motivation internalism” towards the direction of “motivation-and-normativity internalism,” but this does not rule out other possible interpretations of Mencius. (2) the self-reflexivity in moral (...) consciousness is the new dimension of liangzhi (original knowledge) in Wang Yangming. (3) Some of Wang Yangming’s discourses seem to suggest that liangzhi is complete and perfect, in contrast with Mencius’s view that liangzhi is the incipient predisposition towards goodness that needs further development. I explain why despite the apparent contrast Wang Yangming’s thought is consistent with Mencius’s. To conclude, I adopt Tang Junyi’s observation that Wang Yangming’s philosophy is a synthesis of Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan, and a synthesis of Mencius and the “learning of Yan Hui” partially re-invented by the Neo-Confucians. (shrink)

After being recalled to Beijing in 1510 for evaluation and reassignment in the wake of his two-year exile to Guizhou and his period of service as a magistrate, Wang Yangming was assigned to a succession of posts at the capital that kept him there through 1512. During that short time, he remained disillusioned with the Ming court and high politics and chose to put his energies into fostering a philosophical movement. He believed that by restoring the “way of master-disciple (...) relations and friendship,” he could help propagate the learning of the sages. To that end, he held jiangxue gatherings with colleagues and friends and carried on an active correspondence. In those venues, Wang Yangming engaged others with his ideas about the goal of sagehood, the obstacles to attaining it, and the methods for overcoming those obstacles. The following article reconstructs this critical period in Wang Yangming's philosophical development and the intellectual movement he sought to foster, as well as the status of his philosophy as of this point in time. -/- . (shrink)

This essay explores some of the similarities and differences between the views of several Western and Chinese thinkers on the metaphysical status of moral qualities and how we come to perceive and appreciate them. It then uses this comparative analysis to identify and address some remaining problems in regard to these two issues. The essay offers a brief sketch of and introduction to the history of the study of moral qualities and moral perception in modern Western philosophy and (...) takes the views of John McDowell, W ang Yangming, and Mencius as the primary focus of its comparative component. It seeks to understand the views of these thinkers by a careful examination of the metaphors as well as the arguments they employ. (shrink)

In this paper, I take up one of Wang Yangming’s most audacious philosophical claims, which is that an achievement that is entirely concerned with correcting one’s own inner states, called “establishing sincerity” (licheng 立誠) can help one to fully grasp (jin 盡) all ethically pertinent matters, including those that would seem to require some ability to know or track facts about the wider world (e.g., facts about people very different from ourselves, facts about the needs of plants and (...) animals). Wang makes a claim to this effect in some of his letters and recorded discussions. -/- I begin with a brief, historical reconstruction of what Wang means by “establishing sincerity” and then turn to two sets of controversies regarding his audacious claim. The first has to do with how we should understand the proposal that establishing sincerity helps or positions a person to fully grasp all ethically significant concerns. On the interpretation of Chen Lai 陳來, Wang doesn’t think that establishing sincerity is sufficient by itself to have this grasp, only that it lays a necessary psychological foundation for all attempts to do so, so that it leaves much more work to do. I largely agree with Chen’s reading but find it isn’t strong enough to capture what’s most important and controversial about Wang’s view. On my stronger reading, Wang doesn’t just think that establishing sincerity provides a necessary foundation for a complete grasp, he also thinks that it describes the most difficult and demanding step or part of the process – the other steps come much more naturally and easily. The second set of controversies has to do with whether we can preserve Wang’s core account of virtuous moral agency without his strong ethical nativism, according to which we have an inherent capacity and disposition to track what is ethically important or salient about people and things very much unlike ourselves. I consider some arguments and interpretations of Wang’s thought that might allow us to bypass his nativist presuppositions, and conclude that they do not succeed. Even if we cannot accept his ethical nativism, however, there is a range of important ethical norms for which Wang’s prescriptions are powerful and prudent. The result of this study, I hope, will be an account of Wang’s thought which better positions us to see what parts are (and are not) worth bringing to ongoing debates about the nature of ethics, moral knowledge, and moral virtue. (shrink)

Abstract:Within various contexts, such as politics and parenting, Confucianism has been criticized on the basis that it endorses 'unquestioning obedience' to authority. In recent years, several philosophers have argued against this view by appealing to textual evidence from Classical Confucian philosophers. This article examines Wang Yangming's views on this subject, arguing that Wang teaches that criticism of those who stand in a socially superior role relation is not only permitted, but encouraged. From this, the implications that Wang's (...) analysis has for contemporary discussions of disagreement between epistemic superiors and inferiors and epistemic peerhood are considered. It will be argued that Wang's position is much closer to the total evidence view than the preemptive view. Relatedly, it is suggested that Wang provides a novel proposal about how to recognize or disregard epistemic 'superiors', especially in the context of moral knowledge. (shrink)

Wang Yangming's saying " liangzhi xianzai " has been widely misread to suggest that liangzhi is already complete and perfect, need not and cannot be developed. I argue that "xianzai" means "to be still present" and connotes that something still remains and needs protection. " Liangzhi xianzai " is a dictum instructing learners to engage in moral actions according to liangzhi here and now, and to cut off the calculative mindset about the past and future. Liangzhi is not a (...) timeless substance. It has a special mode of temporality. Yangming's military activities, calligraphy, and philosophical sayings together show that he appreciates the esthetic, moral, and spiritual exercise of immersing oneself in the present moment. Daoism and Chan Buddhism challenged Confucianism by offering a mystical experience of time. In response, Yangming transformed Chan Buddhist "nothought" to explore a Confucian approach to temporal consciousness. This observation changes the conventional narrative about how Chan Buddhism influenced Yangming. (shrink)

The intention of this paper is to reveal how Wang Yangming's account of spontaneous action includes the development of a sense of personhood and world that both involve historical depth. This will require me to demonstrate how Wang's use of the mirror metaphor does not necessitate a strictly empty account of the human person and their experienced world. I will first elucidate how it is possible to interpret Wang as suggesting that the latter two are poor in (...) depth and identity. Then I will go on to demonstrate that the latter reading does not do justice to Wang's insistence on the rectification and hence stabilization of the person and things across time, past and future. (shrink)

This article highlights sympathies between Wang Yangming's notion of zhenzhi (real knowing) and Stanley Cavell's concept of acknowledgment. I begin by noting a problem in interpreting Wang on the unity of knowing and acting, which leads to considering how our suffering pain figures in our “real knowing” of another's pain. I then turn to Cavell's description of a related problem in modern skepticism, where Cavell argues that knowing another's pain requires acknowledging it. Cavell's concept of acknowledgment answers to (...) Wang's insistence that knowing and acting are one, and corrects Antonio Cua's very different appropriation of “acknowledgment” to explain Wang's doctrine. (shrink)

Yangming’s theory of the original knowing (liangzhi 良知). In the 1950s there was a debate between Taiwanese liberals and the New Confucians over the relationship between the traditional Confucianism and modern democracy. Like Liu Shipei, the New Confucians justified modern democracy by means of Confucian philosophy (including that of Wang Yangming). For liberals, however, the Confucian tradition encompassed only the concept of positive liberty, which was irrelevant to or even incompatible with modern democracy. In this article, I try (...) to argue for the position of the New Confucians by reconstructing Wang Yangming’s theory of the original knowing from a communitarian perspective. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in (...) the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

The Philosophy of Wang Yang-Ming by Frederick Goodrich Henke, first published in 1916, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent (...) damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it. (shrink)

David Hume was a highly original thinker. Nevertheless, he was a writer of his time and place in the history of philosophy. In this book, M. A. Stewart puts Hume’s writing in context, particularly that of his native Scotland, but also that of British and European philosophy more generally. Through meticulous research Stewart brings to life the circumstances by means of which we can get a deeper understanding of Hume’s writings on the nature and reach of (...) human reason, the foundation of morals, and, especially, on the philosophy of religion. Stewart pays particular attention to Hume’s intellectual development, beginning with his education at the College of Edinburgh, the writing of his Treatise of Human Nature, and his subsequent philosophical responses to criticisms of that book. He argues that Hume’s scepticism set him at odds with the Christian Stoicism of Scottish contemporaries including that of Francis Hutcheson - and shows that this conflict played a major role in his failure to obtain the Edinburgh Moral Philosophy Chair in 1745. Stewart’s detailed study of the physical character of Hume’s surviving manuscripts in Chapters 8 and 9 provides the best available dating of his early ‘Essay on Modern Chivalry’, his ‘Early Fragment on Evil’ and the periods of composition of his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Other chapters compare Hume’s theory of abstraction with that of Locke and Berkeley, provide the 17th and 18th century philosophical context of the central argument of his essay ‘Of miracles’, and consider the 18th and 19th century reception of his writings in England and Ireland. (shrink)

Wang Yangming (1472-1529) and his School of Mind dominated the intellectual world of sixteenth-century Ming China (1368-1644), and his Confucian philosophy has since remained an essential component of East Asian philosophical discourse. Yet, the volume of publications on him in the Western-language literature has consistently paled in comparison to the volume of scholarship on classical Chinese philosophy, modern Chinese philosophy, Buddhism, and Daoism. Studying Wang Yangming: History of a Sinological Field explains the history (...) of writing in the West about the famed Ming dynasty scholar-official. From eighteenth-century French Jesuit books to English-language publications in 2020, this book provides a historical overview and summary of a literature published by scholars attempting to grapple with one of the most influential Confucians in the history of China, East Asia, and the world. (shrink)

Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529) was a Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Ming Era, whose thoughts have had a profound influence in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. This translation contains sixty-seven letters, thirty-one more than previously translated, which help reveal the philosophy of the great Chinese thinker. Included are a preface with background information, critical annotations and references, bibliography, and a glossary of Chinese and Japanese words. The book is an important contribution to the literature of Chinese philosophy, knowledge of (...) which assists our understanding of China yesterday and today. (shrink)

Milattan önce 6. yy’ da Konfuçyüs tarafından kuralcı bir çerçevede açıklanan ve bilgelikerdemlilik sentezini temel alan düşünce ekolüne ahlaki psikoloji kuramını getiren ilk fikir adamı Mengzi’dır. İnsanın doğuştan iyiliği önermesiyle duygu, düşünce ve eylem arasındaki tutarlılığı içgörüsel farkındalığa kaynak gösteren Mengzi, Çin felsefesine yeni bir soluk getirir. Bu önerme, 11.yy’da Neo-Konfuçyüsçü filozof Cheng Hao’ın sezgisel öğrenme metoduyla korunsa da önermenin Doğu Asya topraklarına yayılmasındaki asıl katkı Ming dönemi siyasetçisi, hattatı ve generali Wang Yangming’e aittir. Wang Yangming, Mengzi’dan aktardığı (...) zihinsel-spiritüel bütünlüğü öğretisine dâhil ederek doğuştan gelen bilgi ve erdemin davranışsal tepkimeye yansıma sürecinde rasyoneli dışlar. Sezgisele odaklı bu kuramda duygu ile düşünce birbirinden ayrılmadığı gibi sorgulama, gözlemleme ve deneyimleme safhalarının pratiğine ihtiyaç duyulmaz. Birey, fıtraten doğru-yanlış ayrımı yapabilme yeteneğine sahip olduğu için içgörü ve sağduyuyla her şeyi idrak edebilir; önceden idrak edebildiği için de davranma, bilme ile eş zamanlı güdülenir. Bu çalışmada, Wang Yangming’in sezgisel bilgi kuramıyla savladığı kişisel gelişimin Batı dünyasındaki karşılığı ve modern psikolojiyle özdeşleşen özelliği incelenecektir. (shrink)

Both Wang Yangming and Husserl adopted a subjective approach to their studies. Wang used his concept of xin [heart-mind] to guide the practice, while Husserl used his concept of ego to discover the truth of objects. A comparison on the descriptions, structures and functions of Wang Yangming’s xin and Husserl’s ego illustrated that xin and ego are different terms for the same thing. The distinction between the two scholars is their differences in teleology and study focus. (...) But their studies can be complementary to extend the knowledge of human beings and benefit scientific research. Contribution: The original discovery of the sameness of Wang Yangming’s xin (a Chinese concept) and Husserl’s ego (a Western idea) illustrates that people should adopt a new approach to science, which takes knowledge and morality as a unity, and follow the highest heavenly principles. This is a serious theological and philosophical response to teleology. (shrink)

The problem of ‘transcendence’/‘transcendental’/ ‘transcendent’ runs throughout Heidegger’s Being and Time, and it is central to many of its core concerns. The confusion about the different meanings of using the same words in the history of philosophy from Kant to Heidegger causes not only problems in understanding but also problems in the translation of the philosophical classics, especially in a non-Indo-European language such as Chinese. Through examination of Kant’s conception of the ‘transcendental’ and a critical textual analysis (...) of Heidegger’s reinterpretation of ‘transcendence’ as a temporal ecstatic Dasein’s existence, this essay attempts to show that the problem of transcendence, along with the debates over the Chinese translation of the relevant terms, is not merely a problem in a traditional theory of knowledge or epistemology. Rather, it belongs primarily and essentially to fundamental ontology and thus to Heidegger’s question of Being. (shrink)

Environmental ethics is a major topic of discussion and enactment in China. The government is committed to work toward an “ecological civilization,” a society in which concerns for a healthy natural environment are interwoven with concerns for a healthy human society and healthy human relations with nature. Whereas in the United States concern for the environment is rarely consciously philosophical, Chinese history has made people aware that philosophy underlies and shapes public policy. Whitehead’s thought has been welcomed as (...) a way of clarifying and supporting the commitment to ecological civilization, which has been strongly reemphasized by President Xi. It also helps in reviving and incorporating classical Chinese thought without threatening the great advances China has made in science. This organic thinking has expressed itself in government policy in shifting from the industrialization of agriculture to support for eco-villages and in dethroning GDP as the measure of progress. The interest in Whitehead is expressed by thirty-six universities setting up Centers for Process Studies, extensive discussion of a process book—Organic Marxism—and numerous other publications. (shrink)

Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472 – 1529) is famously associated with the view that knowledge and action are unified (zhī xíng hé yī 知行合一). Call this the Unity Thesis. Given standard assumptions about what it means for a person to know, it may seem that the Unity Thesis is clearly false: I can know that p without currently acting in p-related ways, and I can know how to φ without currently φ-ing. My aims in this paper are, first, to draw (...) on recent work in epistemology to explain and defend the Unity Thesis and, second, to argue that it offers us an attractive conceptual alternative to a standard way of thinking about the nature of intentional action. The first step of my argument draws on the idea that what distinguishes intentional actions from bodily events is the presence of knowing-to – that is, an agent is φ-ing intentionally if and only if she is currently doing something because she knows to do it as a way for her to φ. Such a notion of knowing-to allows us to explain otherwise puzzling features of the Unity Thesis, including the claim that knowing and acting occur simultaneously. In the second step, I argue that the Unity Thesis can help us avoid various long-standing issues in the philosophy of action, including the problem of deviant (formal) causation. (shrink)

This article is a comparative study of the philosophical views on learning and learning methods elaborated by Wang Yangming and Francis Bacon. It argues that as different criteria for the advancement of learning Bacon's empirical learning and Wang's “learning of the heart-mind” represent two different philosophical orientations, and are responsible, at least partially, for laying down the basis for the parting ways of China and Europe at the dawn of the modern era. It concludes that an appreciation of (...) the mutual complementarity rather than opposition between these two philosophical approaches will be a sign for the new and real advancement of learning. (shrink)

This book explores the representations of Central and Eastern European histories in digital games. Focusing on games that examine a range of national histories and heritages from across Central and Eastern Europe, the volume looks beyond the diversity of the local histories depicted in games, and the audience reception of these histories, to show a diversity of approaches which can be used in examining historical games - from postcolonialism to identity politics to heritage studies. The book includes chapters (...) on Serbia, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia, Czechia, Finland, and (a Western guest with regional connections) Luxembourg. Through the lens of videogames, the authors address how nations struggle with the legacies of war, colonialism and religious strife that have been a part of nation-building - but also how victimized cultures can survive, resist, and sometimes prevail. Appealing primarily to scholars in the fields of game studies, heritage studies, postcolonial criticism, and media studies, this book will be particularly useful for the subfields of historical game studies and postcolonial game studies. (shrink)

What did Rousseau's readers mean when they called him an ‘Epicurean’? A seemingly simple question with complex implications. This article attempts to answer it by reconstructing Rousseau's contemporary reception as an Epicurean thinker. First, it surveys the earliest and most widely read critics of the second Discourse: Prussian Astronomer Royal Jean de Castillon, Jesuit priest Louis Bertrand Castel, and Hanoverian biblical scholar Hermann Samuel Reimarus. These readers branded Rousseau an Epicurean primarily to highlight his atheism, his anti-providential and materialist (...) natural philosophy. Then, it discusses Genevan pastor Jacob Vernet's positive assessment of Rousseau as a critic of ‘fashionable’ Epicureanism, before reconstructing Rousseau's critique of the reception of Alexander Pope's Essay on Man as an Epicurean text. These sources elucidate Rousseau's engagement with a range of ideas and argumentative positions that would inform his later self-identification as a ‘refined’ Epicurean. In particular, they highlight his interest in how a sentimental awareness of beauty might mitigate the potentially vicious effects of hedonism. The article concludes with novelist Mme. de Genlis’ critique of Rousseau's Wise Materialism, using his thoughts on the imagination to suggest some of the ways the neglected aesthetic dimensions of Rousseau's reception of Epicureanism might be developed. (shrink)

Recently discovered ancient silk and bamboo manuscripts have transformed our understanding of classical Chinese thought. In this book, Wang Zhongjiang closely examines these texts, and by parsing the complex divergence between ancient and modern Chinese records reveals early Chinese philosophy to be much richer and more complex than we ever imagined. As numerous and varied cosmologies sprang up in this cradle of civilization, beliefs in the predictable movements of nature merged with faith in gods and their divine punishments. (...) Slowly, powerful spirits and gods were stripped of their potency as nature's constant order awakened people to the possibility of universal laws, and from those laws was finally born an ideally conceived community, objectively managed, and rationally ordered. (shrink)

The article conceptualizes the phenomenon of reception of foreign philosophical trends and authors as a social phenomenon that demands a socio-historical approach. The author attempts to demonstrate the advantages of such a genre of the history of philosophy as the history of reception. The merit of the socio-historical approach to reception, according to the author, lies in its ability to elucidate factors hidden from a purely exegetical approach. It allows for the explanation of phenomena (...) that are unexplained from an exegetical perspective, such as the effects of misreading and misunderstanding during the borrowing of foreign philosophical production. These effects are not random but systematic. The author also seeks to clarify Hans Joas's formulated paradox: during reception, misunderstandings arise not only between irreconcilable positions but also between similar ones. The author focuses on the “agents” of reception, which include not only professional philosophers but also translators, publishers, commentators, whose perspectives are always shaped by their position in the social and professional space. This space has its disciplinary, ideological, and national limitations. Based on the analysis of texts from representatives of reception histories, the article formulates key elements of reception theory. Reception is viewed as a social, structured, and transformative phenomenon measured by its impacts. The article also establishes connections between types and periods of reception, each having its own purpose and logic. The article analyzes the conditions for the international circulation of ideas and demonstrates how factors of intellectual, ideological, political, and national character determine both appropriation (successful reception) and rejection of foreign trends or authors. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the philosophical insights of Zhu Xi, Wang YangMing, Kant, and Husserl and therefore proposes a new epistemic constructivism. It demonstrates that a knowing mind is a co...

In traditional Chinese cosmology, this pattern could be very well explained in terms of the fluctuation of yin and yang, or as the natural order of Heaven. This cosmological explanation fits natural history well. There are natural phenomena such as floods, draughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc., that are beyond human control. These events have their determining factors. Once those factors are present, a natural disaster, however unfavorably viewed by humans, is doomed to take place. The view that natural (...) class='Hi'>history is determined by factors outside the human world can be accepted without much controversy. However, when applied to human history, the role of man in human history becomes problematic under this kind of cosmology. How much of our success or failure is due to our larger cosmological environment -- the ongoing development of the chi'? Can a single individual reverse the flow of yin and yang or the emergence of good times and bad times? On a larger scale, is human history predestined? If there is a necessary rotation of prosperity and chaos, then it can be argued that.. (shrink)

Drawing on insights of W ang Yangming 王陽明, Yong H uang proposes an account of a phenomenon that has in recent times suffered neglect. This neglect has been relieved only by the idea of a “besire,” a mental attitude that combines features of both beliefs and desires. I accept the insightfully discerned phenomenon, but offer a different account of its nature and importance. The phenomenon is real, though, and different from the familiar phenomena of knowledge that and knowledge how.

I construe mathematical philosophy not in the narrow sense of philosophy of mathematics but in a broad indefinite sense of different manners of giving mathematics a privileged place in the study of philosophy. For example, in one way or another, mathematics plays an important part in the philosophy of Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant. In contrast, history plays a central role in the philosophy of Vico, Hegel, and Marx. In more recent times, Frege, (...) Husserl, Russell, Ramsey, and Gödel all began as mathematicians. One way of viewing Kant’s system of philosophy might be to stress that he was struck by the synthetic a priori character of mathematical propositions. He went on to offer a remarkable account of this fact and also look for and propose synthetic a priori foundations of physics, morality, and esthetics. (shrink)

I present a problem for an influential argument of Chen Lai's, and argue that Wang Yangming may have believed that all "motivating concerns" are actions. (The archived version is a Chinese preprint; the published Chinese version is available by the external link in the entry. An English version is available on my website.).

A fundamental way in which human thought has developed has been constantly to explain the earliest "classics" that are the source of that thought. All in all, the number of such classics is not very high, their explanations are past counting. Moreover, they are constantly increasing, giving rise to an explanatory chain deriving from the classics. In the development of Chinese philosophy, this aspect is particularly noticeable, so that one can describe Chinese philosophy as a continual explanation of (...) the classics. This holds for both Confucianism and Daoism. The main classics of Daoism are the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. These two works have been constantly reread and reinterpreted throughout history. From the late nineteenth century onward, Chinese philosophy came into closer contact with Western philosophy. Foreign concepts were brought in to provide philosophers with new "insight." Some thinkers applied this new insight or these foreign concepts to the Daoist classics. In this way, they brought a new explanation of the Daoist classics and enriched the ways of interpreting the texts.1 Paving the way in this direction were Yan Fu (1853-1921). Zhang Taiyan (1869-1936), Liang Qichao (1873-1929), Wang Guowei (1877-1927), and Hu Shi (1891-1962). (shrink)

A fundamental way in which human thought has developed has been constantly to explain the earliest "classics" that are the source of that thought. All in all, the number of such classics is not very high, their explanations are past counting. Moreover, they are constantly increasing, giving rise to an explanatory chain deriving from the classics. In the development of Chinese philosophy, this aspect is particularly noticeable, so that one can describe Chinese philosophy as a continual explanation of (...) the classics. This holds for both Confucianism and Daoism. The main classics of Daoism are the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. These two works have been constantly reread and reinterpreted throughout history. From the late nineteenth century onward, Chinese philosophy came into closer contact with Western philosophy. Foreign concepts were brought in to provide philosophers with new "insight." Some thinkers applied this new insight or these foreign concepts to the Daoist classics. In this way, they brought a new explanation of the Daoist classics and enriched the ways of interpreting the texts.1 Paving the way in this direction were Yan Fu . Zhang Taiyan , Liang Qichao , Wang Guowei , and Hu Shi. (shrink)

Nietzsche says "good Europeans" must not only cultivate a "supra-national" view, but also "supra-European" perspective to transcend their European biases and see beyond the horizon of Western culture. The volume takes up such conceptual frontier crossings and syntheses. Emphasizing Nietzsche's genealogy of European culture and his reflections upon the constitution of Europe in the broadest sense, its essays examine peoples and nations, values and arts, knowledge and religion. Nietzsche's apprehensions about the crises of nihilism and decadence and (...) their implications for Europe's future are investigated in this context. Concerning the crossing of notional frontiers, contributors examine Nietzsche's hoped-for dismantling of Europe's state borders, the overcoming of national prejudices and rivalries, and the propagation of a revitalizing "supra-European" perspective on the continent, its culture and future. They also illuminate lines of syntheses, notably the syncretism of the ancient Greeks and its possible example for the European culture to-be. Finally certain of Europe's current problems are considered via the critical apparatus furnished by Nietzsche's philosophy and the diagnostic tools it provides. (shrink)

This radical reinterpretation of the formative stages of Chinese culture and history traces the central role played by cosmology in the formation of China's early empires. It crosses the disciplines of history, social anthropology, archaeology, and philosophy to illustrate how cosmological systems, particularly the Five Elements, shaped political culture. By focusing on dynamic change in early cosmology, the book undermines the notion that Chinese cosmology was homogenous and unchanging. By arguing that cosmology was intrinsic to power relations, (...) it also challenges prevailing theories of political and intellectual history. (shrink)

이 논문은 왕양명의 『오경억설』에 대한 탐구이다. 『오경억설』은 자신의 용장오도(龍場悟道)를 유가의 경전과 연결시킨 저술이다. 왕양명은 1년 7개월에 걸쳐 46권의 『오경억설』을 작성하였지만, 현재 ‘왕양명의 서문’과 ‘12조목’만이 남아있을 뿐이다. 그 이유는 아이러니하게도 왕양명 본인이 불태워버렸기 때문이었다. 당시 유자들은 경전의 문구에만 지리(支離)하게 매달릴 뿐 그 본의를 상실하고 있었기 때문이었다. 이러한 상황에서『오경억설』을 제자들에게 남겨두는 것은 어쩌면 또 다른 ‘통발과 술지게미’를 양산하는 일이 될지 모른다고 우려했던 것이다. 왕양명에게 경전은 ‘내 마음의 실상’을 그려낸 것이었다. 경전에는 ‘성인됨의 진리[聖人之學]’가 담겨있는데, 이는 ‘자체충족적인 마음의 본체[心體]와 그 마음에서 하는 공부[心學]’이다. 왕양명은 (...) 『오경억설』에서 자의적이지만 창조적으로 소해(疏解)하였다. 『오경억설십삼조(『五經臆説十三條』)』의 2∼4조목에 해당되는 『춘추』와 관련된 소해(疏解)에서, ‘심즉리(心卽理)⋅격물(格物:正心)⋅지행합일(知行合一)’과 연결시키고 있었다. 2조목에서 ‘원(元)’이란 단어를 ‘심즉리(心卽理)’와 ‘격물(格物)의 새로운 정의인 정심(正心)’으로 소해하고, 3∼4조목에서 공자의 춘추필법이 ‘역사적 인물의 마음가짐에 초점을 두는 집필법’이라고 이해했다. 곧 지행합일(知行合一)의 관점에서 ‘노나라 은공이 취한 모든 행동은 사실상 그의 마음에서 시행된 것이며, 그의 마음의 선악(善惡)에 따라 공자에게 평가받은 것’이라 생각했다. 『오경억설십삼조』의 4∼8조목인 『주역』에 관한 소해에서, 왕양명은 ‘자체충족적인 마음의 본체[心體]와 그 마음에서 하는 공부[心學]’를 논의하고 있었다. 정(貞)은 ‘하늘이 부여한 본연의 마음[心體:仁]을 올바르게 지켜나감’으로 해석하였다. 그리고 「항괘(恒卦)」에서 ‘항(恒)’은 ‘만물을 낳은 도리[生生之理]인 인(仁)의 모습’으로 ‘불통(不通)하고 부동(不動)함을 오래 지속하는 상태인 니상(泥常)’이 아님을 제시하였다. 또한 「돈괘(遯卦)」에서 도가 쇠퇴하는 세상이지만, 조금이라도 바로잡는 소정(小貞)의 도를 유지해야 함을 말하였고, 마지막 「진괘(晉卦)」에서 ‘자체충족적인 마음의 본체[明德:心體]’와 ‘그 마음에서 하는 공부[心學]인 사욕(私欲)의 제거’를 제시하였다. 이처럼 왕양명은 『춘추』와 『주역』을 ‘성인됨의 심학(心學) 경전’으로서 읽고 있었다. 이처럼 『오경억설』은 용장오도의 본질을 정확히 드러내고 있는 저술이었다. 또한 왕양명의 경전주석의 방식은 ‘성인됨의 문제’를 심학으로 해결하고자 하는 ‘심학적 소해 방식’이었다. (shrink)

이 글은 왕양명(王陽明)의 심즉리(心卽理)가 근본적으로 도덕교육적인 주장이며, 더불어 그 주장이 어떠한 도덕교육적 입장인가를 밝히고자 하였다. 익히 알려져 있듯이 왕양명의 심즉리는 주자학에 대한 반발로 이루어진 제창이다. 그렇다면 과연 주자학의 도덕교육적 사유에 어떠한 불만이 있었는가를 추적하고자 하였다. 이를 위해, 먼저 왕양명이 ‘심즉리를 제창하게 된 이유와 그 의미’를 검토하고, 다음으로 ‘심즉리의 확장적 표현들인 심외무리(心外無理)․심외무사(心外無事)․심외무물(心外無物)․심외무학(心外無學)’을 추적해 보았다. 마지막으로, 심즉리가 지니는 도덕교육적 의미에 대해 간략히 논의하여 보았다. 왕양명이 심즉리를 제창한 이유는 ‘지선(至善)의 소재(所在)는 도덕적 행위자의 외부에서 구할 것이 아니라, 도덕적 행위자 그 내면[心]에 미리부터 주어져 있다’는 (...) 것이었다. 이는 ‘도덕적 인간이 되는 일은 도덕적 행위절목․규정에 대한 수많은 지식을 획득함이 아니라, 도덕적으로 행동하고자 하는 주체의 마음가짐에 놓여있다’는 것을 의미한다. 왕양명이 보기에, 주희의 정리설(定理說)이나 심여리설(心與理說)은 지선(至善)의 소재를 외면에 둠으로써, 마음은 사욕(私欲)에 가로막혀 있으면서도 외면적 행위만 도덕 법칙․절목에 부합하려는 세태를 만들어버린 것이었다. 그에게 ‘도덕적 원리[理]란 바로 마음[心]이요, 마음이 창출해 낸 것’이다. 이처럼 ‘지선(至善)의 소재(所在)가 마음의 본체에 있다는 심즉리’라는 명제는 ‘마음이 도덕적 원리를 창출하는 근원이라는 심외무리(心外無理)’라는 명제로 연결되었다. 더불어 왕양명은 ‘심즉리’를 ‘외재(外在)하는 객관적 사건은 주체와의 관계를 통해 그 의미가 창출된다는 심외무사(心外無事)’와 ‘물(物)은 인간의 의(意)가 지향하는 사(事)이기에 주체의 마음과 나누어 생각할 수 없다는 심외무물(心外無物)’로까지 확장하였다. 이러한 맥락에서 그는 ‘공부란 주체 내면 즉 마음의 문제라는 심외무학(心外無學)’이란 명제를 전개하게 된 것이었다. ‘심즉리와 그 확장적 표현들’에는 왕양명이 바라보는 도덕교육적 시각과 인간에 대한 신념이 나타나 있다. 그것은 바로 ‘도덕적 인간의 형성에 있어서, 도덕적 인간이 되고자 하는 절실한 주체의 의지[意]가 무엇보다 우선 한다’는 것이며, ‘모든 인간에게는 이상적인 도덕적 인격자[聖人]의 경지에 도달할 수 있는 속성이 본래적으로 주어져 있다’는 확신이다. (shrink)

Xu Bing ranks among the most recognized contemporary Chinese artists in the world today. His lifelong interest in word and image paired with his experiences as part of the Chinese diaspora have made him the subject of numerous publications dedicated to exploring culture and communication. With Xu Bing and Contemporary Chinese Art, editors Hsingyuan Tsao and Roger T. Ames bring a welcome addition to this corpus. Compiling seven essays from scholars of art history and philosophy, this volume in (...) the SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture offers a remarkable range of approaches for thinking about not only Xu Bing's work but also contemporary art and culture at large.In their introduction, the editors foreground .. (shrink)

This paper reads Foucault’s 1975-6 lecture series Society Must Be Defended. It argues that the notion of counter-history developed in these lectures depends on a particular construction of Rome, as that which counter-history counters. Foucault’s version of Rome in turn depends on a surprisingly conventional reading of two monumental histories as ‘the praise of Rome’. Reading Foucault’s work instead with Lucan’s Pharsalia renders visible a counter-history within Rome itself. This reading demonstrates the ways in which reception (...) theory can usefully illuminate and supplement Foucauldian genealogy as a critical-historical method. (shrink)

"This is a study of the unlikely 'career' of anxiety in 19th and 20th century philosophy, above all. Anxiety is an affect, something more subtle, sometimes more persistent, than an emotion or a passion. It lies at the intersectiona of embodiment and cognition, sensation and emotion. But anxiety also runs like a red thread through European thought beginning from receptions of Kant's transcendental project. Like a symptom of the quest to situate and give life to the philosophical subject, (...) like a symptom of an interrogation that stove to take form in European intellectual culture, *Angst* passes through Schelling's romanticism into Schopenhauer's metaphysics, until it was approached existentially by Kierkegaard. Nietzsche situates it in the long history of producing an animal able to promise. Its returns in the 20th century allow us to grasp the connection between phenomenology's exploration of passivity, followed by interpretations of the human reality in a world and open to a call that it can hardly assume. The study thus begins with Kant; it probes late Idealism and Romanticism, the metaphysical vitalism that flickered with Schopenhauer, the aesthetics and religious senses of *Angst* in Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. It turns to three avatars of anxiety in the evolving psychoanalysis before exploring the return to rationalism and formalism in 20th century phenomenology, followed again by efforts to resituate human beings in world and body as well as, significantly, before the anxiogenic "other""--. (shrink)

Wang Tingxiang est l'un des grands penseurs et poètes des Ming. Il développe une pensée du qi, énergie-souffle qui est pour lui le seul fondement du monde phénoménal. Il relie la question de la nature de l'homme au qi, dont la qualité détermine son orientation morale. Cet ouvrage propose une étude critique de sa biographie et de sa philosophie qui remet en question certaines thèses avancées par les néo-confucéens des Song, notamment Zhu Xi (1130-1200)"--Page 4 of cover.

This book explores the historical dimension of David Hume's philosophy, a feature that Spencer Wertz calls 'historical empiricism.' According to Wertz, Hume sought to understand the present in terms of the past in a way that anticipates the historical constructionism of R.G. Collingwood and Herbert Butterfield. Hume's method is to tell a story about something's origin in which ideas yield impressions. These impressions eventually yield to experience that includes history as part of its structure. Arguing that Hume worked (...) between history and philosophy, Wertz demonstrates that Hume's historical empiricism consists of four key concepts. These concepts are history, human nature, experience, and nature, all of which play a role in historical narration, taste, moral judgments, and the historiography of science. Bringing new insights to the study of Hume's work, this book will be an important resource for scholars of philosophy. (shrink)