(East-West Question) Sun Xiangchen: "The Moderate Mean" and the "middle way", why do we need to construct a "Chinese philosophy"?
China News Agency, Beijing, March 19th: "Modern Mean" and "middle way", why do you need to build a "Chinese philosophy"?
——Interview with Sun Xiangchen, Dean of the School of Philosophy, Fudan University
Author Wen Longjie Xu crown Chen Jing
For the common concern of mankind, different language worlds will have different original ideological resources.
Philosophy based on Chinese should ponder deeply the general concerns that arise in this linguistic world and the responses to those concerns.
The proposal and expression of "Chinese Philosophy" are directly related to the spiritual structure of the Chinese world, the composition of Chinese concepts, and the characteristics and laws of Chinese itself.
What is "Chinese Philosophy" and how is it different from "Chinese Philosophy"?
Sun Xiangchen, a professor of Fudan University, dean of the School of Philosophy, and director of the General Education Center, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions" for interpretation.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: What is "Chinese philosophy"? Is it a philosophy about "Chinese language"? What is the basis of the concept and paradigm of "Chinese philosophy"?
Sun Xiangchen:
The philosophy of "Chinese language" is a reflection on the characteristics of Chinese language in a philosophical sense, and "Chinese philosophy" is not only a philosophical reflection on "Chinese language".
Wittgenstein once said: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." It can be said that language is not only in the linguistic sense, it carries the "life world" and defines the path of thought development.
Philosophy based on Chinese should ponder deeply the general concerns that arise in this linguistic world.
In other words, Chinese philosophy is a kind of philosophical activity to think about the universal problems of human beings with an open attitude based on the original ideological resources and unique conceptual norms of the "Chinese world" in the sense of the boundaries of the life world.
On January 3, 2022, Tianjin, Oracle Creative Exhibition.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Tong Yu
About the concept and paradigm of "Chinese philosophy", there are roughly three levels.
First, we need to reflect on the Chinese language itself.
Western philosophy has a certain isomorphism with its language, logic and metaphysics.
In this sense, there is still a lack of philosophical in-depth and systematic reflection on the characteristics of the Chinese language itself.
Second, some peculiar conceptual categories in Chinese philosophy need attention, reflection and research.
For example, with regard to the body and the self, Chinese refers to "body" and "self", and in Western contexts there are "body", "ego", etc., but from the Chinese expressions such as "exemplify oneself" and "push oneself to others", it can be seen that " The connotation of "body" and "self" is not the same as the concept in the Western context.
In Chinese, expressions such as "shengsheng", "modern mean", "body use", "knowledge and action", "filial piety", "qiyun" and "artistic conception" are all like this.
Third, the world we understand and the world we express in Chinese are one.
In this more open sense, we need to deeply reflect on the "life world" shaped by Chinese.
China News Service reporter: What is the difference between "Chinese philosophy" and "Chinese philosophy"? Will "Chinese Philosophy" replace "Chinese Philosophy"?
Sun Xiangchen:
First of all, from a practical point of view, current Chinese philosophy pays more attention to the understanding and interpretation of traditional thought, such as the study of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism or the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties, mainly facing the past.
Second, the establishment of "Chinese Philosophy" is based on the study of the history of Chinese philosophy.
Their research paradigms are mainly constructed by Hu Shi, Feng Youlan, etc. based on Western philosophy. According to Mr. Feng Youlan, "among the various studies in Chinese history, select and describe those that can be called Western so-called philosophy." In this context, China has always been "special".
But I think that Chinese traditional thought also has a universal aspect, and philosophy is precisely to reveal this universality.
This is my little doubt about the starting point of the construction of "Chinese philosophy".
Philosophy, on the other hand, is essentially the pursuit of a universal understanding of the world and is decontextualized.
In this sense, the concept of "Chinese philosophy" itself is a bit vague, and it should not be just about Chinese philosophy.
Just as German philosophy is not just about German philosophy, French philosophy is not just about French philosophy, but philosophy derived from the German-speaking or French-speaking world.
The proposal of "Chinese Philosophy" avoids this contradiction, because Chinese is the carrier of ideas, not a determinant.
We know that the superstructure of human beings is implemented in a specific civilization, and human thinking about any universal problem will also be implemented in a specific language.
In this sense, "Chinese philosophy" does not use a nation to define philosophy, but the language and culture of Chinese to think about the universal problems of mankind.
In terms of facing the real world of human beings, compared with "Chinese philosophy", "Chinese philosophy" is too national, national and regional.
I don't think "Chinese philosophy" and "Chinese philosophy" are superseded.
There are many researchers of "Chinese Philosophy", and they are very necessary to study and excavate the treasures of Chinese traditional thought, and they have made great contributions.
But I also think that "Chinese-speaking world" also needs to make philosophical reflection on the current life, and needs a kind of cosmopolitan, open and futuristic philosophy.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
China News Agency reporter: You suggested that "Chinese Philosophy" advocates a "circumferential" strategy in terms of methodology. What is a "roundabout" strategy? What new path does it provide for "inter-civilization" communication?
Sun Xiangchen:
The expression "roundabout" is actually "borrowed".
French scholar and sinologist François Julien pointed out in his study of ancient Greece that if we want to study Greece well, we need to "circle" China; only by "circling" China can we understand what is special about Greece and even Western civilization.
This method works better for us, but it is more difficult to apply.
From the starting point of the discipline of "Chinese Philosophy", it regards the West as a kind of "universal" and uses the West as a standard to understand itself, obscuring a lot of philosophical wisdom originating from the "Chinese world".
"Circumvention" is to understand the West as "other" rather than "universal", and to re-establish China's subjectivity.
When we deeply understand and study the mechanism and process of Western philosophy, and then look back and "contemplate" ourselves, we will find a lot of things that are completely different from the "other" (the West).
This is very important to the process of self-rediscovery.
Of course, this is not to reject the West, but to re-establish one's own subjectivity from a "circumferential" perspective.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Chao
China News Agency reporter: For example, what is the similarity between the Chinese "meaning" and the "practical wisdom" of Western philosophy, and what are the fundamental differences?
Sun Xiangchen:
There are indeed similarities between the two. The "middle way" in Aristotle's practical wisdom emphasizes too much. For example, being brave means maintaining a "middle way" between cowardice and recklessness.
The "middle way" is also too much to talk about, and some books directly use the "middle way" to translate the "middle way", but the two are also fundamentally different, that is, the Western "middle way" or practical philosophy has its metaphysical presuppositions.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
The Western philosophical world is two-dimensional, one is the essential world, and the other is the perception world. We often talk about "seeing the essence through phenomena", which is a very Western philosophical statement.
Aristotle distinguishes between "theoretical wisdom" and "practical wisdom", "theoretical wisdom" is to study the eternal and unchanging essential world, and "practical wisdom" is to deal with concrete and variable things.
Behind the "modern mean" is a worldview derived from the Chinese tradition. We say that "heaven, earth and man" are one world.
The balance of the "moderate mean" is the balance between heaven, earth and man, so there is a saying that "to achieve harmony, the status of heaven, and the cultivation of all things".
In Western philosophy, "theoretical wisdom" occupies a higher position, pursuing truth and principles, and studying eternal categories.
In contrast to this, the Chinese tradition says that "the way of a gentleman depends on the husband and wife; and its ultimate goal is to observe heaven and earth", that is, "the way is not far from people".
Western tradition, opinions and truth confront each other, "Tao" is on the horizon, and we must see the essence through the phenomenon; Chinese tradition, "Tao" is all around us, so we always start from the experience and truth around us, and then generalize it. , push yourself and others.
Therefore, there is often the practice of "experimental fields" in the work, while the West attaches great importance to principles and rules, trying to find a "universal" principle and then realize it.
There are two sets of very different ways of thinking behind different approaches, which are worth our consideration.
Western civilization has its own mechanism, which makes a huge contribution to human wisdom and needs continuous learning.
But at the same time we don't have to deny our worth in their way.
We have our own "why", and we also need to contribute to human beings in a philosophical way.
China News Agency reporter: Can you give some examples of "Chinese philosophy"? What is the world situation of "Chinese philosophy"?
Sun Xiangchen: In
his later years, Mr. Zhang Shiying carried forward a philosophy of "connection of all things", put forward the theories of "horizontal transcendence" and "realm theory", and developed a more universal philosophical system in the mutual observation of China and the West.
Teacher Zhang Xianglong put forward the philosophy of "Tao of Heaven", and also re-organized and expounded the theoretical value of traditional concepts such as "filial piety" from a philosophical perspective.
Teacher Zhao Tingyang re-understood and expounded the concept of "world" in a philosophical way.
The above-mentioned theoretical creations all originated from the "Chinese world", and these philosophers did not emphasize that these concepts are Chinese in their elucidation, but regarded them as some general existential features of human existence in the world.
The world situation of "Chinese Philosophy" can be understood in this way. As long as we elucidate the concepts and categories derived from the "Chinese World" from a rational level, it can gain an understanding of the world; this is not a problem of language translation, but It is a question of philosophical interpretation.
For example, Zhao Tingyang put forward the concept of "the world", and his related works have been translated into English, French, German and so on.
This is one of the microcosms of the world situation of "Chinese philosophy".
(over)
Interviewee Profile:
Sun Xiangchen, professor of Fudan University, dean of the School of Philosophy, and director of the General Education Center; was selected as a leading talent in social sciences (2020) and a leading talent in Shanghai (2019) under the National "Ten Thousand Talents Program".
He has been a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Yale University, University of Chicago, Ecole Normale Supérieure, and the Free University of Berlin in Germany.
The teaching project led or participated in won the first prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award (2018) and the second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award (2014).
He has published many papers in journals such as "Chinese Social Science" and "Philosophy Research", and many books and papers have won the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award.
Two articles, "Dual Ontology: The Foundation for Shaping Modern China's Value Form" and "Modern Individual Rights and the "Individual" in Confucian Traditions, were selected as "Top Ten Annual Recommendation Papers" by the Shanghai Association of Social Affairs in 2015 and 2017 respectively.