Contemporary Chinese Philosophy PDF
Preview Contemporary Chinese Philosophy
CONTEMPORARY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY BOSTON COLLEGE STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY VOLUME VI Other volumes in the series: 1. F.1. Adelmann (ed.), The Quest for the Absolute. 1966. ISBN 90-247-0211-9 2. F.1. Adelmann (ed.), Demythologizing Marxism. A Series of Studies on Marxism. 1969. ISBN 90-247-0212-7 3. F.J. Adelmann (ed.), Authority. 1974. ISBN 90-247-1594-6 4. F.J. Adelmann (ed.), Philosophical Investigations in the U.S.S.R. 1975. ISBN 90-247-1724-8 5. F.1. Adelmann (ed.), Soviet Philosophy Revisited. 1977. ISBN 90-247-1977-1 Editor: FREDERICKJ. ADELMANN Editorial Board Donald A. Gallagher Norman J. Wells Thomas Blakeley Richard T. Murphy Olivia Blanchette For a list of other volumes published in the Marinus Nijhoff Philosophy Library see fmal page of the volume. CONTEMPORARY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY edited by FREDERICKJ. ADELMANN, S.J. 1982 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS THE HAGUE/BOSTON/LONDON Distributors: for the United States and Canada Kluwer Boston, Inc. 190 Old Derby Street Hingham, MA 02043 USA for all other countries Kluwer Academic Publishers Group Distribution Center P.O. Box 322 3300 AH Dordrecht The Netherlands Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Contemporary Chinese philosophY, (Boston -College studies in philosophy; v. 6) (Martinus Nijhoff philosophy library ; v. 9) 1. Philosophy, Chinese--20th century--Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Communism--Ch-ina--Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Adelmann, Frederick J. II. Series. IlL. Series: Martinus Nijhoff philosophy library ; v. 'I. B5231.C66 1982 181'.11 82-14504 ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7691-7 e-ISBN-I3: 978-94-009-7689-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-7689-4 Copyright © 1982 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1982 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Martinus Nijho[[ Publishers, P. O. Box 566, 2501 eN The Hague, The Netherlands. Dedicated to Rev. JOHN P. ROCK, S.J. Ph.D. 1917 1980 a brilliant coleague, a loyal son of the Church, a brother Jesuit, devote teacher and friend. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Editor wishes to thank the following col leagues and staff members for their help in the preparation of the present volume. Special gratitude is due to Ms. Deborah DeChiara-Quenzer and Paul Kidder, my graduate assistants; to Dean Donald J. White of the Graduate School at Boston College for wise counsel and assistance in obtaining a University Subvention; to Rev. Joseph F. Flanagan, S.J., Chairperson of the Philosophy Department at Boston College; to Mr. Fred B. Mills, Director of Policies and Procedures at Boston College and to his capahle assistants, Ms. Cheryl Simcoe and Ms. Lisa Fegley-Schmidt of the Word Proc essing Division; to Miss Mary Raftery and to Mrs. Lorraine C. Canavan for assisting in the typing of the manuscripts; to Mrs. Juliette D'Andrea and to Mrs. Louise Dietenhofer of the Philosophy Department at, Boston College for handling efficiently so many details connected with this project; to my colleagues in the department for reading the manuscripts and offering helpful advice; to Professor Peter Tang of the Depart ment of Political Science for academic help and moral support; and finally to the contributors for their patience and learning and without whose efforts this edition would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Frederick J. Adelmann, S.J., Introduction ix Joseph P. McDermot, Dualism in Chinese Thought and Society 1 Brantly Womack, The historical Shaping of Mao Zedong's Political Thought 27 Francis Soo, Mao's Vision for China 63 Julia Ching, Probing China's Soul 81 Theresa Chu, Some Reflections on Mao Zedong's Thought 97 Donald E. Macinnis, Secularism and Religion in China: The Problem of Transcendence 117 Peter S.H. Tang, Whither Contemporary Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism, Communism, or Christianity? 135 Werner Schilling, On the Possibility of a Future Philosophical Dialogue between China and the West 183 INTRODUCTION The idea of the present sixth volume in the Boston Col lege Studies in Philosophy entitled "Contemporary Chinese Philosophy" was conceived by the editor several years ago, before the current resumption of Chinese American political and economic amity occurred offi cially. Several preceding volumes in this series had studied various aspects of Marxism especially Soviet Marxism. Possibilities for dialogue between Christians and Marxists were discussed not only in the series but elsewhere too in various philosophical journals and books through the sixties and seventies. It was only a natural outcome then to wonder about the same possi bilities in regard to Chinese Marxism. Hence I sent off to many potential contributors - scholars in the field - the following proposal seeking papers for a volume on Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. The themes that should constitute the content of the articles were as follows: 1. How rigidly do contemporary Chinese adhere to Marxism-Leninism? Naturally this means principally the educated persons, but it might include the non-academic segment of the peop.le. By Marxism-Leninism here, J mean the contemporary Soviet brand. Hence, I do not. mean Marx's early writings or the developments of people like Kolakowski. 2. Are they constrained to think in a kind of hori zontal materialism or are they open to a species of transcendence that might include the God problem or a belief in another life after this one on earth? 3. What do they think about the human person? For example, is the person to be defined only in terms of the social whole? Is there a basic autonomy within thE" person so that there is a source for human rights that. is the ground for the social relationship? Adelmann, F.J. (ed.): Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. © 1982, Martlnus Nijho!f Publishers, The Hague, Boston, London. ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7691-7 x 4. What do they think about human psychology? Is the will free? Is it possible to look at the human person in this way, in other words, is there any common basis for dialogue on the level of metaphysics or phenomen ology? This is the schematization that was basically the same in my correspondence with prospectiv e contrib utors. I wish to thank and to congratulate the aca demicians whQ have responded positively and whose con tributions are to be found in this volume. Suffice it to say, my format was not adhered to in detail in many of these studies, a fact explainable in terms of my naivete at the time regarding Chinese thought and the depth of divergences that exist between different sys tems in the,East and West. Nonetheless, th~ result has been both fortunate and informative. Much spade work on the academic level had to be cultivated before one could enter into the more i~ediate discussions of dia logue. Thus a necessary foundation has been estab lished in these papers about the vasi' Idifferences be tween Western and Eastern categories of thinking, at ti tudes of mind, and philosophical roots. I hope that. the readers will be as satisfied with the results as 1 am. A Chinese rarely says "yes" or "no"; when one says "yes" one probably means "no" and vice versa. I came upon these ideas in an article by Joanna Chann, M.M. in a magazine entitled Maryknoll for July, 1980. The author went on to explain in fuller detail the meaning of these statements and revealed some basic categorial differences that were helpful to me. It seems too that. many Chinese are less interested in ideology than in conduct. Most Chinese want to get along with people amiably. Hence, a kind of polite masking of immediate and personal reactions goes on and they seem to agree on points that one discovers later they really don't go along with. It is even interesting according to my in-' formants to discover how rarely one can detour or change already committed positions. Conversion means very often that the hearer will weigh your good points according to his way of thinking but you may wait in xi vain for what we in the West would expect to be a con version. The practical sphere is different from the over arching view of things. Many Chinese would agree with someone's general ideas, but prefer to work practically in their own private sphere. Such persons are cosmic philosophically, but really act as individuals pri vately. These notations are written after reading and conversations. They are not set forth as absolutes but. as some insights revealing the differences between oc cidental and oriental thinking. Such a theme has actually been developed in a much more sophisticated way in the articles in this volume. In Chinese thought one begins with one side of a concrete relation and then realizes that there is an other side that is different, contrary, or contradic tory in our categories. But these experiences are al ways seen in the harmony of unity that explains the tensions of the earlier experience. Thus, there is a cosmic interpretation of reality as a unity and harmony of various elements. History or the on-going ex·' perience of life is a cyclic process subsumed under the unity of the whole. The combination of both elements results in a hopeful and optimistic attitude toward the negative and the evil aspects of life. Thus, in the Chinese Communist Party, axioms include: Idea is Reality Finite is Infinite I am the All Life is Death; Death is Life Present is Past and Future Past is Future and Present Yin is Yang The Changing is Eternal Contradiction is Universal, Absolute. It exists in every evolving Progress among things. One of the key philosophical notions that recur in Chinese thought and in Maoism in particular is that a person can only be defined adequately in relation to a wider whole, be it family, the village, or the nation.
The list of books you might like
