Western and Chinese Philosophy

INTRODUCTION: PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL METHODS 1. The Nature and Function of Philosophy Bertrand Russell, The Value of Philosophy (from The Problems of Philosophy) Fung Yu-lan, The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy (from A Short History of Chinese Philosophy) 2. A Variety of Methodological Insights and Approaches Georg Hegel, Dialectic Progress (from Phenomenology of Spirit or from Lectures on the Philosophy of History) Yin and Yang Way of Thinking (from The Yijing and The Daodejing) Socrates, Universal-definition-concern approach (from "Euthyphro") Confucius, Holistic-situation-concern approach (from Analects) Aristotle, System-concern approach (from Posterior Analytics) Argument and Evidence: Deductive and Inductive Arguments Role of Bian (Distinction / Dispute) (from Mojing: Xiaoqu) 3. Reflections on Philosophical Categories Aristotle, Selections from "Categories" Gilbert Ryle, "Categories" Zhang Dainian, On Categories of Classical Chinese Philosophy (from On Categories and Concepts of Classical Chinese Philosophy) PART I MORALITY 1. Standards and Relativism Zhuangzi, Selections from The Zhuangzi: Qiwulun Xunzi, Selections from "Rectifying Names", "A Discussion of Heaven" and "Dispelling Obsessions" Mozi, "Agreement with the Superior" Ruth Benedict, Ethical Relativism (from Anthropology and the Abnormal) James Rachels, Against Ethical Relativism (from The Challenge of Cultural Relativism) David Wong, Relativism (from A Companion to Ethics) 2. Moral Character, Moral Nature, and Moral Cultivation Plato, The Soul's Function (from Republic) Aristotle, Virtue and the Good Life (from Nicomachean Ethics) Confucius, Ren (humanity) as the fundamental virtue (from the Analects) Laozi, Living in the Dao and Wuwei (from The Daodejing) Mencius, Human Nature and Innate Idealism (from The Mencius) Xunzi, Human Nature and Learning (from The Xunzi) Thomas Hobbes, Human Nature as Competitive (from Leviathan) Rawls, The Conditions of Justice (from A Theory of Justice) Zhuxi, Dual Human Nature and Its Refinement (from the Complete Works of Zhuxi) Jean-Paul Sartre, There Is No Human Nature (from Existentialism and Human Emotions) 3. Right Conduct and Moral Duty John Stuart Mill, Principles of Utilitarianism (from Utilitarianism) Mozi, Program Utilitarianism (from the Mozi) Laozi, On the Decline of Dao and the Emergence of Duty (from The Daodejing) Immanuel Kant, Moral Duty and Reason (from Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals) Friedrich Nietzsche, Historical Character of Conventional Morality (from Beyond Good and Evil) W. D. Ross, Prima Facie Duty and Intuition (from The Right and the Good) 4. Society, the State, and Justice Confucius, Rulers as Sagehood (from The Analects) Han Fei, The Way of the Ruler (from The Han Feizi) Laozi, Moral Dimension of Statescraft (from The Daodejing) Mozi, The State of Nature and Choosing of Elders (from The Mozi) Zhuangzi, On Cripples, Nature and Human, and Dragging One's Tail (from Zhuangzi: Qiushui) Plato, The Nature of the Ideal State (from The Republic) Thomas Hobbes, Severeignty and Security (from Leviathan) John. Locke, Consent and Political Obligation (from Second Trentise of Civil Government) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Property, Labor and Alienation (from The German Ideology) John Stuart Mill, The Limits of Majority Rule (from On Liberty) John Rawls, Rational Choice and Fairness (from A Theory of Justice) PART II KNOWLEDGE, SKEPTICISM, AND TRUTH 1. Skepticism Pyrrho, Pyrrhonian Skepticism Zhuangzi, Dreaming, Distinction, Dao and Skepticism (from The Zhuangzi) Descartes, Methodological Skepticism (from Meditations on First Philosophy) David Hume, Sense Skepticism (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding) 2. Knowledge and Reason 2. 1 Scientific-Oriented Approaches: Plato, Innate Knowledge (from Meno) Descartes, Foundation for Knowledge (from Meditations) John Locke, The Senses as the Basis of Knowledge (from Essay concerning Human Understanding) Immanuel Kant, Experience and Conceptual Categories (from Critique of Pure Reason) 2. 2 Humanistic-Oriented Approaches: Confucius, Holistic-Situational Understanding (from The Analects) Laozi, The Spoken and the Unspoken (from The Daodejing) Sudden Enlightenment (from the Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch) Wang Yangming, Unity of Knowing and Practicing (from Instructions for Practical Living) Dewey, On Inquiry (from Reconstruction in Philosophy) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hermeneutics Approach (from Truth and Method) Lorraine Code, Mitigated Feminist View (from What Can She Know? ) 2. 3 Attempts to Synthesize: Jin Yuelin, Unity of Two Approaches to Knowledge (from On Original Dao) Mao Zhedong, "On Practice" Alvin Goldman, Social Knowledge (from Knowledge in a Social World) 3. Truth and Dao 3. 1 Traditional Approaches in Western Philosophy Betrand Russell, The Correspondence Conception of Truth (from The Problem of Philosophy) F. H. Blanshard, The Coherence Conception of Truth (from The Nature of Thought) William James, The Pragmatic Conception of Truth (from Pragmatism) 3. 2 Dao-pursuing in Chinese Philosophy and Truth Chad Hansen, "Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy and 'Truth'" David Hall, The Way and the Truth (from A Companion to World Philosophies) 3. 3 Some Contemporary Approaches Alfred Tarski, The Semantic Conception of Truth (from The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics) Paul Horwich, The Deflationary Conception of Truth (from Truth) PART III METAPHYSICS 1. Search for the Nature of Ultimate Reality Plato, Theory of Forms (from Republic) Aristotle, Substance (from Metaphysics and Categories) Ockham, Law of Parsimony and Nominalism (from Summa Logicae) David Hume, The Limits of Metaphysical Speculation (from Enquiry concerning Human Understanding) Immanuel Kant, On Metaphysics (from Prolegomena) Edmund Husserl, The Thesis of the Natural Standpoint and Its Suspension (from Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology) Martin Heidegger, Being and Subject Involvement (from Being and Time) Rudolf Carnap, Metaphysical Claim is Meaningless? (from The Elimination of Metaphysics) Dao as Movement of Yin and Yang (Selections from The Yijing) Laozi, Dao as Metaphysical Origin (from The Daodejing) Zhu Xi, Li and Qi (from Zhuziyulei) Some Chan/Zen Buddhist Reflection on Ultimate Reality and Self Nature Fung Yu-lan, Li, Qi, Dao, and the Great Whole (from Xilixu) Chung-yin Cheng, Onto-Hermeneutical Vision (from "Onto-Hermeneutical Vision and Analytic Discourse: Interpretation and Reconstruction in Chinese Philosophy") 2. Search for the Nature of Human Existence Plato, Three Parts of the Soul (from Republic) Descartes, Cartesian Conception of Self (from Meditations on First Philosophy) Freud, The Partially Hidden Self (from Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis) Chan Buddhism, Enlightenment and Self Nature David Hume, The Self as Bundle (from A Treatise of Human Nature) Alasdair MacIntyre, A Narrative Conception of Selfhood (from After Virtue) Confucius, Human Cultivation and Heaven Mandate (from The Analects) Zhuangzi, Human Freedom (from The Zhuangzi) Baruch Spinoza, On Peace of the Soul (from Ethics) Mozi, On Fatalism (from The Mozi) Laplace, Hard Determinism (from Philosophical Essay on Probability) Jean-Paul Sartre, Condemned to be Free (from Being and Nothingness) Harry Frankfurt, Hierarchical Compatibilism (from Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person) 3. Reality, Thought and Language *Plato, Linguistic Argument for Theory of Forms (from Phaedo and Republic) *Aristotle, Language and Ontological Categories (from Metaphysics and Categories) *Ockham, Law of Parsimony and Nominalism (from Summa Logicae) Zhuangzi, Language, Blowing Breath and index icals (from Zhuangzi) Chad Hansen, Ideographs, Mass-Noun Hypothesis and Part-Whole Model (from Language and Logic in Ancient China and "Chinese Ideographs and Western Ideas") David Hall & Roger Ames, Pragmatic Function of Language and Focus-Field Model (from Thinking through Confucius) Note: The titles of the selections with '*' refer reader to their previous appearances but go with their distinct editorial commentary in this subsection.