How Chinese Thought “Shapes” Western Thought
The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 2001:25-40 (2001)
Abstract |
I begin this paper with some autobiographical reflections of my own journey in Chinese languages and philosophy not only in order to demonstrate how Chinese philosophy can change one’s attitudes toward Western philosophy, but also to suggest that the shift in philosophical perspective that occurs—when viewed through a Chinese lens—is reasonable. The second half of this paper consists of interpretative hypotheses about the content of Chinese philosophy vis-à-vis the West. I reflect more specifically how the different structure of the Chinese language seems to have worked in Chinese philosophical reflection and contrast that with the way intentional idioms did in Western philosophy. Looking mainly at theory of language, the key similarity between the two traditions is expressed in the current “pragmatic” view that “meaning” is irreducibly normative. The differences that attend to this formulation between Chinese and Western thought will also be discussed
|
Keywords | Conference Proceedings Contemporary Philosophy General Interest |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | 978-1-889680-19-4 |
DOI | wcp2020011248 |
Options |
Save to my reading list
![]() ![]() |


No references found.

No citations found.

Tongbian in the Chinese Reading of Dialectical Materialism.Chenshan Tian - 2002 - Philosophy East and West 52 (1):126-144.
A Critical Reflection on the Systematics of Traditional Chinese Learning.Fang Zhao-hui & David R. Schiller - 2002 - Philosophy East and West 52 (1):36-49.
“Let Chinese Thinking Be Chinese, Not Western”: Sine Qua Non to Globalization.Wu Kuang-ming - 2010 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (2):193-209.
Understanding the Chinese Mind: The Philosophical Roots.Robert E. Allinson (ed.) - 1989 - Oxford University Press.
Minds, Programs, and Chinese Philosophers: A Chinese Perspective on the Chinese Room.Koji Tanaka - 2004 - Sophia 43 (1):61-72.
Traditional Chinese Thought: Philosophy or Religion?Jana S. Rosker - 2009 - Asian Philosophy 19 (3):225-237.
A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation.Chad Hansen - 1992 - Oxford University Press.
On the Problem of the Meaning of Life in “Chinese Philosophy”.Xize Deng - 2011 - Frontiers of Philosophy in China 6 (4):609-627.
Did Buddhism Ever Go East?: The Westernization of Buddhism in Chad Hansen's Daoist Historiography.Douglas L. Berger - 2011 - Philosophy East and West 61 (1):38-55.
The Most Fashionable and the Most Relevant: A Review of Contemporary Chinese Political Philosophy. [REVIEW]Zhou Lian - 2009 - Diogenes 56 (1):128-137.
Liang Shuming's Viewpoint of Chinese and Western Cultures in the Substance of Chinese Culture (SUBS-CC).Lu Weiming & Zhao Xiaoyu - 2008 - Contemporary Chinese Thought 40 (3):52-66.
Added to PP index
2011-01-09
Total downloads
44 ( #132,053 of 2,225,162 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #75,443 of 2,225,162 )
2011-01-09
Total downloads
44 ( #132,053 of 2,225,162 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #75,443 of 2,225,162 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Monthly downloads
