Doing Chinese Philosophy: A Focus on Philosophical Methodology

✍ Scribed by Shaoming Chen

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 212
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book focuses on "doing Chinese philosophy", the concept of which is a derivative form of Ludwig Wittgenstein's expression "doing philosophy". On the one hand, its approach differs from the traditional philosophical study method, which tends to discuss rather than do; on the other, it focuses on the unique features of Chinese philosophy. The concept of "Chinese philosophy" combines classical philosophy and contemporary philosophy. Whether classical Chinese philosophy still holds power depends on its ability to compete with contemporary philosophies (from the West, or ideology). At the very least, it has to convincingly show that classical thought has a unique role in interpreting and shaping the function of modern spiritual culture. Providing insights into China's excellent philosophical ideas, this book will appeal to all readers who have a basic understanding of philosophy and are interested in Chinese philosophical thought. It not only explains the author's proposal for studying Chinese philosophy in terms of methodology, but also answers the question of how classic Chinese works should influence other cultures.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
1 A Shift of the Genealogies of Knowledge: On Paradigms in the Study of the History of Philosophy
1.1 The Academic Field of “History of Philosophy”
1.2 Presenting the Matter from a Different View
1.3 Orthodoxy and “Synthesis”
1.4 Change of Ideologies
1.5 Going Back to Intrinsic Interpretation
2 Comparative Philosophy from the Perspective of Chinese Philosophy’s Academic Experience
2.1 From Comparative Philosophy to Chinese Philosophy
2.2 Intercultural Communication
2.3 The Problem of Methodology
3 Research on the History of Chinese Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy’s Creation
3.1 Emphasis on the History of Philosophy Rather Than Philosophy
3.2 The Divergence of Research on the History of Philosophy
3.2.1 Standpoint Priority
3.2.2 Category Misplacement
3.2.3 Substituting Textual Criticism to Rational Learning
3.2.4 “Empty Talk About Mind-and-Nature”
3.3 Expanding Philosophical Horizons
3.4 Philosophy Facing the Classical Thought Experience
4 Men, Events and Things in the Classical World: A Reflection on the Writing of Chinese Philosophy
4.1 Knowing Persons
4.2 Narrating Events
4.3 Observing Things
4.4 Exploring Learning
5 What is an Event in Intellectual History?
5.1 First Definition
5.2 Two Methods of Interpretation: Narrative and Commentary
5.3 Events, Narrative, and Logic
5.4 Conclusion
6 Philosophy and Argument
6.1 The Central Focus: Methodology
6.2 Belief, Discourse, and System
6.3 Chinese Classics and Argumentation
6.4 Bridging the Gap from History of Philosophy to Philosophy
7 Analogical Interpretation and Beyond
7.1 An Analysis on “Analogical Interpretation”
7.2 Analogical Interpretation and Beyond
8 The Logic of Imagination: Classical Examples from Chinese Philosophy
8.1 “Suddenly Seeing a Child About to Fall in to a Well”
8.2 Zhuang Zhou’s Butterfly Dream
8.3 Contradiction
8.4 Imagination, Logic, and Reflection
9 Further Reflections on the Methodology of Chinese Philosophical Research—Starting from Cashing in the “Bank-Note of Ideas”
9.1 The Bank- Note of Ideas
9.2 Existing Paths to Knowledge
9.3 Experience Starts with Here and Now
9.4 Attempts Beyond the Textbooks
9.5 Reflected-Upon Experience
10 What Makes It the History of Thought: Xu Fu-Guan’s Thinking Tendency and Research Approach
10.1 Structure of Pressures
10.2 The Complex of Opposing the “Qian Jia School” (乾嘉学派)
10.3 Moving Beyond Metaphysics
10.4 Critical Confucianism
10.5 What Kind of History
11 Crossing the Dual Barriers of Understanding: On Benjamin Schwartz’s View of Intellectual History
11.1 Thought: “A Limited Freedom”
11.2 Sharing the Cross-Cultural Experience
11.3 Situations and the Rational Path
11.4 View of Comparison
12 Chinese Philosophy from Abroad: Methodological Inspiration of Iso Kern’s Phenomenology of Mind-Heart
12.1 On the Types
12.2 Philosophical Analysis
12.3 Inspirations
Appendix 1: Interview with Chen Shaoming by Chen Bisheng
Appendix 2: Paper Catalogue on Methodologies to Philosophy History