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Principle, Knowledge, and Personality: Some Reflections on “the Good” according to Plato
CHEN Yuehua
Frontiers of Philosophy in China. 2013, 8 (4): 585-606.
https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-002-013-0047-2
This paper focuses on Plato’s “Form of the Good,” or “the Good,” with an interest in Plato’s riddle that “the Good is the One.” Unlike the traditional approach to explaining the Good in the Republic as “rational order” or a unity of Forms, this paper argues that the Good is the unique transcendent principle, like the apex of a hierarchy, but does not encompass the whole structure. According to its Ontological position, its multiple facets (functions) include the Ontological foundation of uniting “to be” and “ought to be,” the ultimate source of knowledge, and the Ideal goal of uniting the common good and individual goods. The practical dimension of the Good is highlighted in exploring the lifelong study of the Philosopher-Kings and their political personality. It is also pointed out that “sudden enlightenment” plays an important role in their path toward the Good. Finally, this paper proposes that the Good should be the a priori beginning of education and the end of the practice of virtues in the community.
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Sign, Image and Language in The Book of Changes (Yijing 易经)
Heinrich Geiger
Frontiers of Philosophy in China. 2013, 8 (4): 607-623.
https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-002-013-0048-9
It is challenging to estimate the degree to which the system of the Trigrams and Hexagrams in The Book of Changes (Yijing) had an impact on the whole history of Chinese thought. The universal paradigm from which it was derived formed the basis of a semiotic theory of evolution which, because of structural analogies, was applied to all fields and aspects of human life where decision making and action in correspondence with a cosmic principle was required. To achieve that goal, countless commentaries on and interpretations of the Yijing have been written. They can be divided into two schools. The first used the Yijing as a book for divination, in combination with manifestations of the universe and nature. The second interpreted it with a philosophical background, making it part of the tradition of Confucian thought. Modern scholars have also contributed some new approaches to the Yijing. My paper is based on the assumption that the Trigrams and Hexagrams of the Yijing cannot be understood in a purely representational way. They do not represent things apart from their relation to human needs or consciousness. Because of the co-determination of text and reader as a task without determinate end-points, it proves to be a unique case of effective-history. In the Yijing, there is no real line between culture and nature, sign/image/language and fact, the universe of semiosis and other universes. With its use of signs, images and language, the Yijing confirms that the universe of semiosis is the universe of heaven, earth and man. Against this background, my explanations will not only focus on the Trigrams and Hexagrams. My paper will also deal with the following topics: (1) interpenetration of linguistic meaning and objective reality and (2) the social nature of verbal or literary expression.
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Bodily Subjectivity, Way of Administration and Governance in the Axial Age
CHEN Yun
Frontiers of Philosophy in China. 2013, 8 (4): 624-640.
https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-002-013-0049-6
The Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period were key eras in which the family-kingdom-state political structure handed down by the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties transformed into the more familiar four-dimensional political structure of body-family-kingdom-world. The most important of the transformations was the independence of the body. The collapse of the feudal politico-religious structure dominated by emperors, lords and the senior officials allowed the social body to become independent of the overall structure of family-kingdom-world and became a structural element itself. As well, the teaching of Confucian ren 仁 (humanity) expanded the independence of the body to a moral and spiritual level, thus providing another agent for the politico-religious structure of body-family-kingdom-world. The emergence of this new agent provided another political agent “having no right to administer but the right to comment” outside the ruling group. As a result, the assumption that to “rectify” meant to “administer” was developed in the pre-Qin period. This became the Way of Administration, the ultimate meaning of which is to complete one’s human nature and to know destiny, which is the purpose of the Way of Governance. Subsequently, the Way of Administration and Way of Governance together formed one of the most significant political ideas in Chinese history.
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Knowledge, Presupposition, and Pragmatic Implicature
XU Zhaoqing
Frontiers of Philosophy in China. 2013, 8 (4): 670-682.
https://doi.org/10.3868/s030-002-013-0052-4
It is widely accepted that knowledge is factive, but two different understandings of “factivity” should be distinguished, namely, the implication version and the presupposition version. While the former only takes the truth of P as a necessary requirement for “S knows that P,” the latter considers it also necessary for “S does not know that P.” In this paper, I argue against presupposition and defend implication. More specifically, I argue against Wang and Tai’s defense of the presupposition version as presented in a recent paper and propose a pragmatic response to the “persistence problem” of implication. In other words, my positive proposal is an account of implication plus pragmatic implicature. To conclude, I use my version to analyze Wang and Tai’s distinction between inner skepticism and outer skepticism. My conclusion is that, after abandoning presupposition, we can identify two types of intermediate skepticism between Wang and Tai’s inner and outer skepticism.
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