I find it hard to believe that anyone would question that there is such a thing as 'chinese philosophy'. We've all heard of Tao (or Dao) from an incredible range of popular cinema media ie. Last Airbender and Star wars, even small western children have 'The Toa of Pooh' which introduces the idea at kindergarten level. Whoever you spoke to must have been living under a rock!
Just the usual Western arrogance and hubris. Related joke: "Why are the pyramids still in Egypt? Because they are too big and heavy to bring them to British museums..." :)
My perspective is informed by my own cultural practices (Chinese). I think that the lines between Chinese culture, religion and philosophy are often indistinct. They exist on a spectrum and interact with each other. Maybe people don't realise what they think of one is actually also partly the other and vice versa, which then impairs them from recognising philosophy. For example something as basic as ancestor worship. Would that be considered religious? Or is it cultural practice? It is also however informed by Confucian ethics so is it also philosophy? Separating these into their constituents nicely leads into the territory of Buddhist philosophy on shunyata, which then in turn also touches on Daoist concepts on the undefinable Dao. Which then leads back to the question of are we talking about religion or philosophy or cultural practice? So I dont blame people for thinking we don't have philosophy because it's sometimes hard to know where one begins and the other ends haha. Just my own observations.
Nice topic, but a bit long-winded and dry, at least to me. Peppering it with some concrete samples, examples, artifacts (if in the public domain or legally available) would have been a welcome format, but oh well, at least we got an expert speaking. General problem of academics, btw, is the inability to express themselves in a concise, business-like manner, summarizing their thoughts in a hierarchical, easy-to-understand structure with short, succinct sentences instead of a romantic whirlpool of thought-tsunamis, but listeners to this kind of content (and source) are already accustomed to this phenomenon. Thanks Imre for shedding the light via Prof. Meyer to the existence of the heap of hitherto "un-excavated" Chinese manuscripts in the philosophy domain. PS: Just some food for thought: the very word in English "philosophy" is coming from Greek (philo-sophia, the "love of wisdom", or rather "the fancying of knowledge", literally), so it is somewhat understandable that Western scholars live in their aforementioned "we know everything better" bubble, however ridiculous such an attitude is from the perspective of anyone coming from a civilization/culture OLDER than the entire West's 2000+ years of total existence (and there are heaps and bounds of them, like Egypt, Phoenicia, Sumeria, Persia, China, etc). There were periods in human history when newcomer cultures preserved the self-destroyed cultures of others (like the 1000 years of Islamic science period, for instance), but generally speaking, with all our "new inventions", we can safely assume that civilizations, particularly those with the longest continuous existence (like China) tried it, thought of it, had it before, so it is more logical to assume that certainly they had the philo-sophy, just like the West did. It is absurd, illogical, and indeed arrogant to assume otherwise. A healthy dose of humility would indeed be welcome, but oh well, the expectations, based on history, are set very low. Cheers anyway and thanks for the pioneering work!
非常有興趣的話題與對話
谢谢！
I find it hard to believe that anyone would question that there is such a thing as 'chinese philosophy'. We've all heard of Tao (or Dao) from an incredible range of popular cinema media ie. Last Airbender and Star wars, even small western children have 'The Toa of Pooh' which introduces the idea at kindergarten level. Whoever you spoke to must have been living under a rock!
Indeed, living at the bottom of a well!
Just the usual Western arrogance and hubris. Related joke: "Why are the pyramids still in Egypt? Because they are too big and heavy to bring them to British museums..." :)
@zbarczy 😀
My perspective is informed by my own cultural practices (Chinese). I think that the lines between Chinese culture, religion and philosophy are often indistinct. They exist on a spectrum and interact with each other. Maybe people don't realise what they think of one is actually also partly the other and vice versa, which then impairs them from recognising philosophy.
For example something as basic as ancestor worship. Would that be considered religious? Or is it cultural practice? It is also however informed by Confucian ethics so is it also philosophy? Separating these into their constituents nicely leads into the territory of Buddhist philosophy on shunyata, which then in turn also touches on Daoist concepts on the undefinable Dao. Which then leads back to the question of are we talking about religion or philosophy or cultural practice?
So I dont blame people for thinking we don't have philosophy because it's sometimes hard to know where one begins and the other ends haha. Just my own observations.
From a new be of everything Chinese, this is fascinating and much appreciated
Great, thank you!
Nice topic, but a bit long-winded and dry, at least to me. Peppering it with some concrete samples, examples, artifacts (if in the public domain or legally available) would have been a welcome format, but oh well, at least we got an expert speaking. General problem of academics, btw, is the inability to express themselves in a concise, business-like manner, summarizing their thoughts in a hierarchical, easy-to-understand structure with short, succinct sentences instead of a romantic whirlpool of thought-tsunamis, but listeners to this kind of content (and source) are already accustomed to this phenomenon. Thanks Imre for shedding the light via Prof. Meyer to the existence of the heap of hitherto "un-excavated" Chinese manuscripts in the philosophy domain.
PS: Just some food for thought: the very word in English "philosophy" is coming from Greek (philo-sophia, the "love of wisdom", or rather "the fancying of knowledge", literally), so it is somewhat understandable that Western scholars live in their aforementioned "we know everything better" bubble, however ridiculous such an attitude is from the perspective of anyone coming from a civilization/culture OLDER than the entire West's 2000+ years of total existence (and there are heaps and bounds of them, like Egypt, Phoenicia, Sumeria, Persia, China, etc). There were periods in human history when newcomer cultures preserved the self-destroyed cultures of others (like the 1000 years of Islamic science period, for instance), but generally speaking, with all our "new inventions", we can safely assume that civilizations, particularly those with the longest continuous existence (like China) tried it, thought of it, had it before, so it is more logical to assume that certainly they had the philo-sophy, just like the West did. It is absurd, illogical, and indeed arrogant to assume otherwise. A healthy dose of humility would indeed be welcome, but oh well, the expectations, based on history, are set very low. Cheers anyway and thanks for the pioneering work!