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WiSe 19/20: A Modern Interpretation of Chinese Philosophy

Xiangchen Sun

Kommentar

This course will provide a general framework for understanding Chinese philosophy, not just from one school or one sect’s theory. This is a completely new way to understanding Chinese philosophy, because only in a large framework can we understand why the ancient Chinese philosophers thought about these problems in this way, and make those specific theories appear in their reasonableness. This general framework is mainly established through comparison with Western philosophy. Although Western philosophy has developed many different theories, it also has its integrity. Whitehead said that the Western philosophy for two thousand years is the notes of Plato's philosophy. Of course, this holistic understanding is also based on a critical assessment of a classical canon made up of ground-breaking texts. Understanding the general framework provides us with a macro-level view, which also lays the foundation for understanding various theories. We will try to understand how Chinese philosophy is based on an ontological commitment and how it makes its general judgment about the universe. These are the commonalities of various schools. With regard to some key concepts of the Chinese thinking based upon such presuppositions, we raise the questions such as what kind of ways of thinking will be formed, how these presuppositions will affect Chinese people's understanding of language, truth and art, how Chinese people understand their life, how is ethics established, and how to understand history. Although Chinese philosophy has many genres, many doctrines, but this common ground, this big pre-set has its coherence, and the various answers will appear to be related to each other only in the context of this large presupposition. The philosophical problem means to transcend a particular people, a particular time, and a particular locale, but the answers to these questions are still limited to a certain civilization, or a certain culture. Here, the first thing we care about is not whether such an answer is good or bad, right or wrong, nor that today's Chinese are all like this, but based on classical texts to outline the overall framework, its logical coherence, and its reasonableness. Of course, this general understanding will help us better understand the relevant philosophical issues and thus understand certain Chinese phenomena. Schließen