Online research in philosophy

The origin, content, argumentative basis, practical implication, and influence of Mencius' views of mind-heart and human nature are discussed. While the differences between Confucius and Mencius are acknowledged, it is argued that Mencius' view that human nature is good is consistent with and is a further development of basic ideas in Confucius' thinking. The basis of Mencius' view is not empirical generalization but inner reflection and personal experience, which reveal a shared natural endowment in human beings with a transcendental source. (...) In addition to a discussion of Mencius' views, the development of his ideas in the Sung and Ming and by contemporary Neo-Confucians is also considered. (shrink)

Until recently epistemology in the Western sense was never a central issue in Chinese philosophy. Contemporary Chinese neo?Confucian philosophers, however, realize that in order to reconstruct some of the important traditional philosophical insights and make them meaningful in the present time, certain methodological and epistemological considerations are indispensable. The present paper undertakes to examine some of these efforts. Since most neo?Confucian philosophers today have been influenced by Hsiung Shih?li, in one way or another, his epistemological theory is presented first. Then (...) the further development of a neo?Confucian epistemological system in Mou Tsung?san's thought is discussed. Hsiung Shih?li has made an important distinction between what he calls the hsing?ehih and the liang?chih. The former may be translated as the original wisdom and is what we rely upon to grasp ontological reality; the latter may be translated as the measuring wisdom and includes both our commonsensical and scientific ways of understanding which postulate a real, external world. A dialectical relation holds between the two. Mou Tsung?san further develops a comprehensive epistemological system which confirms the basic insights of Hsiung Shih?li. He has attempted a synthesis of the philosophical insights which he learns from Kant in the West and the Confucian tradition in China. (shrink)