Philosophy East and West

A feature of Li Zehou's (李泽厚) work was the co-opting or reworking of historical or popular phrases and aphorisms. One such repurposed distinction helpfully situates his work and this book-length survey of it. He identified two approaches to the history of Chinese thought. The first, translating literally, is "I annotate the six classics" (wozhu liujing 我注六经), and the second is: "the six classics annotate me" (liujing zhuwo 六经注我). In the first approach, the subject categorizes both texts and history, and successive layers of interpretation accumulate in a commentarial tradition; the second treats history as a resource for the present, and views the human subject as the product of history. History--as texts, culture, social practices, and values--has a role in creating the human subject in the present. It is the understanding of historical and cultural forces, and their dialectical relationship to human subjectivity and cognition, that yields an answer to Li's fundamental ethical question: what is it that "makes human being human"? (p. 1)

Jana Rošker's monograph is a valuable contribution to the task of understanding Li's intricate blend of particular history and abstract theory, as well as his comparative methodology that draws on Chinese and Western thought. This book follows her more general overview of Li's life and work, Following his Own Path. This book focuses on his ethics and how it follows from his foundational intellectual commitments. The book consists of eight main chapters, along with a brief introduction and epilogue. The chapters follow an obvious order: a general overview of Li's philosophical framework (Li is a system building philosopher), followed by an overview of this ethical thought (chapters 3–4), and how his ethics derives from his metaphysical and epistemological commitments (chapter 5). Later chapters look at specific themes in Li's thought: justice and harmony (chapter 6), how human subjectivity is conditioned (chapter 7), influences that have shaped Li's work (chapter 8), and Li's theoretical or methodological innovations (chapter 9).

Li's thought is laden with neologisms and theoretical constructs and the book duly unpacks many of these--too many to cover here. As Rošker points out, understanding Li's ethics requires a basic familiarity with Li's broader theoretical [End Page 1] framework: "In Li's view, the laws determining the coherent development of humankind as a whole influence and indirectly control the basic, general guidelines of human moral conduct" (p. 282). Li was influenced by Marx's historical materialism, and also took from Marx and Engels the idea that "the ultimate criterion" of human ethics is "the sustainable existence and reproduction of humankind" (ibid.). However, Li was dissatisfied with the more mechanical parts of Marx's theory of societal development--including Marx's theory of class, of social progress as conflictual, and of teleological (millenarian) historical progress (p. 51). Li developed a modified historical materialism, labeled anthropo-historical ontology (renleixue lishi bentilun 人类学历史本体论) (p. 7). This is a theory of human subject formation, in which human nature is dynamic and open to evolution. Li emphasized biologically-given features, such as parent-child affection; but these starting points could be refined and elevated through the "humanization of nature" (zirande renhua 自然的人化) (p. 7). Unlike animals, humans can refine initial responses and emotions through socialization and rational control. Human nature (Rošker prefers "humanness" for renxing 人性) is also formed through the dialectical relationship of human practice and environmental forces (humans act on the environment and a changing environment changes humans). Not determined by biological nature, humans are thus "supra-biological" (chaowusheng 超生物) beings (p. 2).

Kant also greatly influenced Li, particularly in accounts of reason and the will. Unlike Marx, Li develops a detailed account of human's inner lives and cognitive structures. As tool-using beings, human laboring activity shapes inner psychology as well as the external world (p. 89). Li's ethics depends greatly on how this inner life is understood--where it comes from...