Abstract: Western society has a priori materialist mainstream thinking color, emphasizing the objectivity of the object recognition, which has a On the claims of idealism, emphasizing the subjectivity of perception in the body, the Chinese people more comfortable with, , the reality of care based on experience, pragmatic Confucian society have a strong inclination. though this classification has a certain simplicity, but in the comparison of Chinese and Western societies and the corresponding cognitive thinking is useful when social phenomena.
empirical and Transcendentalism: Eastern and Western society, the basic thinking compared
- My Confucianism, Civilization (c)
I. Introduction
from the East, look at the source of Western civilization, both have great similar characteristics, the tools are included in the scope of rationality and value rationality; However, the origin of their thinking, and different evolutionary paths, which in turn show different characteristics of social cognition, which deeply reflected in the people under the two civilizations The goal of human nature and social relations, and views on the difference. On the one hand, to thinking in terms of origin, mainly from Western thought Greece's natural philosophy, Hebraic religion and the spirit of Roman law, and modern Basically, the idea of Western society can be seen as a blend of the three, in which different scholars emphasize and deepen the party's formation of a unique genre; the contrary, despite the ideological source of Confucian society seems to be more numerous and more, but has been dominated by Confucian basic idea was, of course, due to the birth and development of Confucianism in the process of constantly by the impact of other ideas, which had to have a fusion of the original Confucianism also in the process continue to be other ideas absorption and the formation of the current characteristics of Neo-Confucianism. On the other hand, both the current thinking in society's basic point of view, stems from the nature of Western thought from the directly reflects the ancient Greek natural philosophy and mysticism with religious doctrine, which Western thought has a priori materialist fundamental (objective) colors; the contrary, China is a Confucian society based on social experience of the phenomenon of idealism based on experience (subjective) tradition.
Second, a priori and empirical description of the label and its complexity
general, Western society priori thinking has long been popular from the metaphysical philosophy reflected this philosophy and metaphysics embodied in the ontology (ontology), it concerns the nature of existence; of course, the ontological existence or nature of the stress can be physical, it can be very abstract, or simply is a concept. For example, Plato's school of thought, any term corresponds to a physical presence; In contrast, other philosophers maintain that there are some terms do not represent the entity, and represent a collection of concepts, including things or events, but also abstract things produced by the human mind, such as , ancient Greek, Roman began, Western philosophers to explore the world based on ontology to the primitive or the substrate, try to turn the world attributed to the presence of a substance, mental, physical or an abstract principle. For example, Barmen Needham only constant is proposed primitive essence and phenomenon of phase and special phase, the relationship between general and individual, etc.; in the Western modern philosophy, Descartes was the first ontology to research entities, or first philosophy called its successor, Wolf tried to establish a purely abstract way to complete, on general metaphysical existence and nature of the world, that is independent of the ontological system. to Kant ontology when a new development: on the one hand, Kant that the establishment can not be abstract metaphysical ontology, ontology is only to study the universal nature of things and the existence of material existence and spiritual difference between; the other hand, Kant and the Epistemology and compared with a fragmented, instead of a priori ontological philosophy. Since then, based on the idealism of Hegel proposed ontology, epistemology and logic uniform principles, and from a purely structural concept of existence of the existence of its own dialectical logic of the development system; to late 19th early 20th century, then began to appear against any metaphysical and ontological positivism, analytic philosophy and so on. Nevertheless, there are still many people trying to re-establish the ontological theory of existence, such as Husserl's transcendental ontology, super-rational feelings and intuition to build super-concept system, which has a strong a priori; Moreover, such a priori thinking is and the only materialism (objective) doctrine is only an abstract, simplified, and the actual existence of thinking will have much more diverse and complex; Nevertheless, when compared to the East and the West, to make such a simple division still has its significance. here Two points need to be described.
the one hand, the source of knowledge in dealing with this issue, Western philosophy can be roughly divided into two basic schools: rationalism and empiricism. including, where rationalism is that construction rationalism, it is true that the knowledge necessary to judge by the full name and composed, the purpose of thinking is to develop the truth system, in which various propositions are logically related to each other; Also, since the truth as rationalism or rational reason for all natural inherent, and this is talent, or a priori truth, and thus of rationalism and naturalism combined prior to showing a strong Marxist characteristics. On the contrary, the evolution of empiricism is often alleged that reason, it denies a priori truth that a clear understanding of the truth is not necessarily the exact truth; Moreover, all the empirical knowledge that originated in sensory perception or experience are, thus combining it with the socialist and has a strong dialectic. however, be pointed out is, 1. although both strong and weak performance of schools in different periods are different: almost evenly divided between early Greek, ancient Greek scholars to explore the laws of nature but also from the city to get the operation of knowledge on human society ; However, since Plato, Constructivist Rationality gradually dominate the development of ancient Greek thought and experience will be part of the dialectical out gradually removed, until the Enlightenment was the concern of the humanities began to re-emergence of empirical thought .2. Renaissance and the Enlightenment is basically a revival of natural science, is the importance of reason; Therefore, this construction is not because of rationalism and the rise of empiricism undermined the contrary, the further development of the western expansion of the material construction rationalism. For this reason, although any can not be purely a priori philosophical rationalism, because it reveals the background of experience in the world, but compared with the Confucian social thought, I was thinking of the mainstream of Western society and the only way to produce characteristics as a priori and rational; In fact, even in Western society in terms of empiricism, rationalism often can not escape the basic thinking, or Hume would not have to technical knowledge to enable us to avoid the molecule to see that this is the essence of a priori thoughts do not match; because Christianity is the spiritual focus, out of thin air and create a spirit of absolute existence, which academics are often called objective idealism to Christian thought. However, this division and presented here is also a history and theory of classification basis, in order to explain this, we can also be a brief description of two ways:
1. where the materialistic material particles, such as black holes, class relations, causal laws are all objective reality; Obviously, such thinking is not limited to objectivity within the scope of natural science, but an impact on a wide range of philosophy and world view of Western society. In fact , based on ancient Greek natural philosophy of natural science is concerned that the material world, that is, by speaking world Popper 1, while the Christian worship of the spiritual world is absolute, that is, by speaking world Popper 3; Clearly, Popper, World 1 and World 3 are objective, there are also a priori, and therefore has a very large two similarities thinking. For example, from Plato's spiritual consciousness to natural areas, expressed as a psychological or spiritual naturalism, from the man himself derived the true nature of the real nature of his purpose, then the purpose of his natural life in the natural norms derived; As Popper pointed out, Latour is not the idealist historicism ultimately depends on the spirit, but rather relies on a biological basis, it relies on a person's race on the meta-biology. Plato is not only made the country's biological theory and is thought naturalist, he also first proposed the social geography and political history of the biological and racial theories. Dodd seemingly empirical realism ultimately comes down to things, Plato and Aristotle's theory has great similarities of, and they are exploring the nature of the certainty of things. In fact, despite the good Aristotle Plato himself abandoned utopian thinking, and tried his own theory summarized in the empirical analysis of the material; But, as Heidegger points out, Aristotle's thinking is metaphysical, but its more like a metaphysical point of view from a variety of After Plato, where the species had a first experience of Greek thought the return of the Original; As Heidegger puts it, than did Plato, he is more based on the initial nature of existence to think. and the metaphysical attempt to explore the existence of the transcendent nature of the existence of those; and, in this transcendent being, the metaphysical or the use of starting from the existence of beings who exist to think that there exists a metaphysics, the existence of a variety of ways to show the existence of those things that, as a way of Plato transcendental entity, or as the intrinsic nature of everything; for this reason that Heidegger ; a priori Ancient Greek thought and the transmission links between natural philosophy, and they simply ignore the consistency of thinking. For example, Qian pointed out that the West ignored the human standard, As a result, Although the growth of the ideology is very slow, but little by little, in growth, so the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the laity is inherited and not destroy the work of the scholastics. inheritance relationship between philosophy can be reflected from two facts: (1) Christianity is not suddenly out of thin air, but thought the laws of nature in Western society, based on the generated due to lack of faith in reason, which they can not be separately; this reason, natural scientists such as Newton eventually backward theology, and Copernicus Group itself is the priest of priests, religious law is Dr live life in the church circle, and Clement VII had praised his work and hope to see it published. (2) Notwithstanding Aristotle has begun to create a way of empirical knowledge, his political concepts and theories are hard to collect from his Greek extracted States Constitution a; However, Plato created the overall impact of constructivism on the deeper western philosophy, which led directly to Christianity in the emergence of an absolute moral imperative, even after the impact of the Enlightenment, Rousseau, Comte, Hegel, Marx and so on. In fact, as Husserl points out, the ancient Greek and Roman mythology and all kinds of people out of the shackles of the traditional insightful knowledge no preconceptions of the world and people in general, and ultimately the world itself into a rational understanding of its internal and theology, and its absolute principle: God; [6] At the same time, starting from the Middle Ages Aquinas, through Europe, Grotius, Pufendorf, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Bangladesh Desmond dove, until the United States Adams, Paine, Jefferson, etc., most Western scholars are not convinced that there is bound the statue law, natural rights can not be repealed. In particular, Kant further abandoned the natural law of human nature based on experience to establish moral philosophers and the general rules of law practice, and attempts to directly order based on reason 3 in the world to establish moral ought; and to Hegel claimed that history and civilization in the unfolding development of The main carrier of the absolute spirit is the highest form of rationality, is the universe's highest body, and soul of the world's ultimate primitive, natural, human and social, but it is absolutely outside of the spirit and performance.
In fact, from the West History of the development point of view, most materialist philosophers also an advocate of rational construction, such as Spinoza, Rousseau, Marx, etc.; the idealist is more emphasis on the evolution of rationality, such as Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant. However, in Western society, idealism and materialism seems to be, regardless of family: not only some theologians, such as Leibniz, Ricci are all engaged in scientific research, even some of the typical idealist who started as Kant is also based on studies of nature of materialism; Moreover, some typical materialist such as Descartes, Newton, will slide into the final circle of idealism. For this reason, in Western society, science, instrumental rationality, Transcendentalism religions seem inherently interlinked nature; as Rice points out, The concept of structure and technical features which have a priori. elaboration and development of empiricism, and interests as the moral principles and developed a utilitarian ethics; However, because of this deep-rooted naturalism a priori thinking, focus on the utilitarian moral concern for the focus on the individual interests of the ultimate economic man be replaced by the pursuit of interest was only to explain individual behavior into perspective. For example, Hobbes, and Rocco are against the use of naturalistic thinking to theological doctrine at the time: Hobbes to mathematics and philosophy as a need to use the word expression of Mathematics, Locke's wrote the field of general and complete scientific system so that the spiritual realm, like opacity as the clarity of the natural world; this, he secretly cf Newton system a few can not be doubted default assumption that human nature, compassion and tendency to avoid bitter instincts Music . Yu Ying-shih pointed out, In fact all the way out but they are unable to science. Rationalism, theoretical circles in the West has always occupied a dominant position; Obviously, the root of modern mainstream economics is based on this rationalist tradition, which is cost - benefit analysis and the basis of balanced thinking.
and even if Marx's theory Construction also has a strong reason and a priori materialist thinking. In fact, Marx since the mid-19th century, 40 years as a scientist from the beginning, and try to dig out the historical development of the identified path; Seidman wrote: As with his ideological opponents, Marx and the Enlightenment is also able to reveal the truth about the science of human services for the prisoners of this dream. He put himself as a social science of Newton. passive acceptance of a pre-existing, non-personality and decisive reality, The dialectics of practice, it is only an idealist metaphysical practices Marx and Engels and the in capitalist countries as a result, they are piece together letters the bad sense Heart of experience (subjective) is an abstract and simplified Marxism, where the Idealist . In fact, in the Confucian view, everything is not fixed, there is life and consciousness: not only is only through the human senses can determine the World 1 and World 3, the presence, or ; I do not know the heart, know that the day activities based on their own experience and thinking through transcendental spoken to understand Popper's World 1 and World 3; Therefore, the Confucian society, the basic way of thinking is subjective and empirical, even those who have aimed to explore the nature as to the Start with the that the perceptual to rational need to correctly understand the objective laws of nature, otherwise, the . Again, though due to the objective spirit of Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism began to ask about the same as Popper's World 3, Others, such as the gas-only deals Wang Tingxiang advocate naturalistic materialist, functionalist Wang Fu-chih stressed naturalism, Yan Yuan and Li Gong and other practical implementation of the school of naturalism and naturalism Dai physical school, are derived from Confucianism and transcendental objectivism and the West there is a big difference; Fang Dongmei that their the point of view, cried out: all the philosopher shall return to earth from heaven! strive for the full development of human nature, membership can be done to achieve the ideal of perfection basic thinking, we can generally believe that the mainstream thinking of Western society with a strong color of transcendentalism, emphasizing the objectivity of cognitive object to the basic thinking is belief in God is not conceptual, but humans can not know through rational thought and objective reality. On the contrary, Confucian society is full of experience in mainstream thinking on the idea, emphasizing the subjectivity of perception in the body, so the Chinese are more identity truth and the truth of the distinction between the facts come to the right to illustrate the differences of Thinking, in which the sensory experience, it is acquired Rationalism is specific. The reason is that Western society as the innate human reason, human nature through rational intellect to understand the rational reflection, and rational truth, the truth is more true than the facts, more precious, and therefore a model of human knowledge; example, in Western society rationalism, logic, mathematics or theoretical physics are considered to be examples of rational truth, even in the ethical and metaphysical truths are also much knowledge as subject to rational discussion. On the contrary, from the Confucian rationalism society the integration of man and nature to create in the rational spirit, so that it has several features that: (1) Chinese people to turn a blind eye to observe things up is the variety of activities and types of and to a wealth of experience based on the observation, more than logic, epistemology, or any purely abstract knowledge is more important; (2) China stressed the need to apply to the practice of theory, namely the unity of knowledge in order to ensure the life Throughout the practice linked with the rational, in practice, knowledge and reason to achieve a reasonable activities and through self-education to improve life.
Third, Chinese and Western social thought and its practical applicability compared
characteristics because of Western society is abstract reason, and therefore knowledge of Western society is built mainly in the abstract and universal principles, the ability to reason and experience and the fact that essentially separate; the contrary, the Confucian society, rationality is specific, and thus China human subject to natural objects and nature of the match, and the Confucian idea of cognitive differences also reflects the way street, the good way, BroadVision, way is to create the provision of others, to complete, is one of its own initiative, which can only be found not to be created in person, the person is not active, so society, began to put aside the Although unknown, but ; gradually on the rise.
, of course, the mainstream thinking of the Confucian society originated in the Western society is primarily concerned with Western society from the mainstream thinking of the first exploration of the natural world, since almost all of which are marked by the ideological imprint of natural law: not only Christian thought is, and, after the Enlightenment, modern thought as well. Indeed, despite the Enlightenment movement known as Christian doctrine is revolutionary and reactionary, but to inherit the natural science and rationalism this point, the two are interlinked: both attempt to the precepts of natural science applied to human society, are important while ignoring the human qualities; Therefore, society does not just talk about the Confucian sense, do not think that purely rational speculation can solve all the mysteries of the universe, but that requires people to the practice of the universe, nature and man is the highest level of the Chinese Ming. In fact, Although the current thinking in Confucian society after the big impact of Western thought, the confusion so far has been in a state of disorder, but on the whole, Confucian ideas of society but also with the traditional Confucian culture still retain thousands of silk million strand of the contact; reason is that Confucianism is the Chinese people the reason for the fundamental characteristic of the Chinese people, but also only in this way, only the formation of the current Western cultural and social difference.
So we said, the two Western a society's basic thinking there are obvious differences: the West is often seen as a priori the existence of the world, as one machine; and Confucian society put the experience of the world as a recognized body, is an organism. Needham in its History of Science and Technology of China, atomic theory, the Chinese people is the development of the organic philosophy of the universe. color; this also as Qian pointed out, Western science and Chinese classical view of nature has long been out of tune, Western scientists have always been stressed that entities (such as atoms, molecules, elementary particles, biological molecules, etc.), and the Chinese view of nature based on the relationship Zeyi, which is based on the physical world more l r based on the idea of organized concerns, and the natural world as an organic whole idea is the lack of Western society has been. So Prigogine pointed out that, based on the sense of the whole thing and its laws, emphasizing the relationship between the grasp of things, and the spontaneous self-Zuzhi point of view, etc., are the characteristics of traditional Chinese academic thought, they are based on the relationship between human society and a deep understanding of nature, emphasizing the human and nature, nature and society links, and so on.
on the two societies in the West This fundamental difference in thinking there can also be a representative from the two social scientists, thinkers, or get a glimpse of the thinking characteristics.
the one hand, to Western society, it is important Enlightenment thinkers see themselves first of all as a scientist. For example, in the form of Voltaire to the popular interpretation of Newton's mechanics, life engaged in chemical research; Montesquieu published scientific work early, d'Alembert was a mathematician and physicist, Holbach was also the famous physicists, chemists, geologists, and mineralogists; Leibniz is both a world-renowned theologian, philosopher, mathematician, but also well-known lawyer, diplomat, inventor, mining engineer and China expert; Kant is the first study of natural science, has published attention to social issues and life problems, but its field of view with an obvious feature of natural scientific thinking, Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Grotius, Hobbes, Kant's writings and theories of nature marked Fasi Wei scars. For example, Hobbes, etc. regarded as a natural part of man, as a special kind of object, the human physiological and psychological process is also subject to general physical laws govern the movement of objects; Again, Spinoza also believes in the natural state of human desire and the will to power by the degree of dominance than the admissibility of the degree of domination, and, depending on the scope of individual rights, the size of his force. Similarly, Kant's pure moral philosophy Zeyi human behavior as the object of the law of freedom of research to find out the inevitability of reflecting the synthetic a priori moral judgments, and he's ...
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