Table Of ContentFusion of Chinese and Western Wisdom
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Synthesis of Chinese and Western Philosophy
Preface
Due to the reason of different geographies,histories,nations,religions
etc ,there are many civilizations in the world .
According to the statement of famous American scholar , Samual
Huntington , the world civilization includes 8 main types : Hindu
civilization.Islamic civilization.Japenese civilization,Orthodox
civilization,Chinese (Confucian )civilization, Western civilization,Africa
civilization and Latin American civilization.
Philosophy is at the highest level of human civilization. Buddhist
philosophy and Islamic philosophy are closely related with religions.In
the whole world , Western philosophy and Chinese philosophy are the
only two independent philosophy systems which are built on human
reason .Both of them have their systematicness ,.completeness and
worldwide influence.
Chinese Philosophy is a philosophy system which not only belongs
to China. It has a wide influence in many countries in Asia and also in
people originated from China but now living in different countries in the
world..
Western philosophy has its influence not only in Europe and North
America, but also in many countries in all continents of the world
There have been already some researches on the comparison
between Western philosophy and Chinese philosophy(see the related
Chapters and References in this book ). A problem is : are there some
commonalities between these two philosophy systems? Is there the
possibility to synthesize these two philosophy systems? This is the issue
which will be discussed in this book. In this book ,the purpose of
comparison of these two philosophy systems is to discuss the problem of
synthesis of them . This is the reason that the title of this book
is :Synthesis of Chinese and Western Philosophy
The author has read more than 300 books (mostly original).of
Western and Chinese philosophy.My idea is that even though there are
apparent differences between Chinese and Western philosophy, they still
have some commonalities. The reasons of these commonalities are :
1 Both of them face to the great nature and the same world
?Both of them face to the common human nature
–Both of them face to the common need for a reasonable
human society.
?Both of them come from the same human reason.
Due to the above commonalities ,there exists the possibility to
synthesize Chinese and Western Philosophy .
The author used the word “Synthesis” ,other than the word
“Integration” or “Unification” . My idea is that there is no necessity and
also no possibility to completely integrate or unite Chinese and Western
philosophy together to become a world philosophy. Even in far future
,different countries or nations will remain they own cultural
characteristics. The saying of Confucius is reasonable:
“Harmony but not sameness”.
As to some important problems ,the thinking in different philosophy
systems may be integrated ,but they will still remain their own
characteristics in a long time continuously.
The meaning of “Synthesis” is same as the saying of Confucius:
“Harmony but not sameness”.
In the author’s opinion, the synthesis of Chinese and Western
philosophy will be an important direction of human’s future civilization
which will push forward the progress in many aspects of human
civilization
As a Chinese scholar. The author is concerning the influence of China
on the world. In 2010 ,China’s GDP exceeded Japan becoming the
second largest economy entity in the world.This is the accomplishment of
China’s reform and opening up policy.
But , the soft power of China is far behind comparing with its hard
power . Only depending on the Confucius Academies located in many
countries in the world ,it is difficult to raise the soft power of China .
There exists a problem: in more than 2000 years of China’s history,
are there some world level cultural resources?
The author ‘s opinion is that in many aspects ,Chinese Philosophy(not
only theory of Confucianism ) reached the world level . It reached the
highest level in the world in some aspects (as Cosmogony ,Ontology
,Moral philosophy ,etc ) .
Of course,in some aspects ( as Epistemology and Political
philosophy),Western philosophy is certainly superior than Chinese
philosophy ,which China need to study seriously .
That is why that the Synthesis Study of Chinese and Western
philosophies has its important meanings ,not only for the progress of
China ,but also for the whole world . Many essences in Chinese
philosophy are not familiar to academic circle and people in other
countries in the world. It's necessary to introduce them .
The author is not a specialized philosopher .but an agricultural
scientist . I have been made contributions to Agricultural Meteorology in
China and also to establishment of Agricultural Modeling Science in
China.
Owing to the interest in philosophy in my youth period ,after my
retirement in 1999,, I have been reading a large amount books in
philosophy ,both Chinese and Western. Based on wide reading and my
own independent thinking , I have written 7 books on philosophy . They
are:①Synthetic Philosophy,②Strolling in Western Philosophy, ③Brief
Introduction to Chinese Philosophy,④Love Philosophy,⑤Philosophy of
Good and Common Value,⑥Beauty Philosophy and ⑦Soul Philosophy.
This book probably is my last book on philosophy.
Because I am not a specialized philosopher , there is more freedom
for me to have some independent thinking in the academic circumstance
of China.
And also ,because I am a scientist ,I may use more scientific
knowledge in my books.
All readers of this book are acknowledged sincerely by me.
My email address is : [email protected]
I welcome your comments on this book and like to have
communication with you through email . If you have any questions on
Chinese philosophy , I like to help within the extent of my ability.
2015-4-10,Nanjing, China
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Two Worldwide Philosophy Systems and Their
Main Differences
Chapter 2 The Forming Background of Chinese Philosophy
Chapter 3 The Forming Background of Western Philosophy
Chapter 4 Communication between Chinese and Western
Philosophy
Chapter 5 Comparison and Synthesis of Cosmogony and
Ontology in Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 6 Comparison and Synthesis of Epistemology in
Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 7 Comparison and Synthesis of Moral Philosophy in
Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 8 Comparison and Synthesis of Political Philosophy
in Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 9 Comparison and Synthesis of Beauty Philosophy
in Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 10 Comparison and Synthesis of Love Philosophy
in Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 11 Comparison and Synthesis of Life and Death
Philosophy in Chinese and Western Philosophy
Chapter 12 The Meanings of Synthesis of Chinese and
Western Philosophy— Helping Progress of the
World and China
References
Brief introduction of Prof. Gao Liangzhi
Gao Liangzhi (1929.5.20--):( Gao is his family name)
He was born in Shanghai and graduated from the Affiliated High
School of Shanghai University in 1946 . In 1950 ,he graduated from
College of Agricultural Sciences of Zhejiang University .
He was working in East China College of Agriculture Sciences for four
years . After then , he was working in East China Institute of Agricultural
Sciences ,which turned to be Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural
Sciences(JAAS) in 1978. From 1983-1990 ,he was assigned as the
President of JAAS and also a senior researcher there.
At the same period ,he was a professor of Nanjing Agricultural
University , China Agricultural University and Nanjing College of
Meteorology . He was a Trustee of CIMMYT( International Research
Centre of Maize and Wheat in Mexico)
He was one of the founders of Agricultural Meteorology and the main
founder of Agricultural Modeling Science in China.
He has been accomplished 88 research papers and many books on
Agricultural Sciences, as Climatic Ecology of Rice ,Foundation of
Agricultural System Science , Foundation of Agricultural Modeling
Science,etc.
He was interested in philosophy in his young age . After he retired in
1999, up to now ,he has read more than 300 books on philosophy,mostly
original works of famous Chinese and Western philosophers. He wrote 8
books on philosophy:
1) Essay on Synthesis Philosophy , Gao Liangzhi,China Culture
Press,2007 (in Chinese)
2)Strolling on Western Philosophy , Gao Liangzhi,Wuhan University
Press,2014(in Chinese)
3)A Brief Discussion on Chinese Philosophy,, Gao Liangzhi,Wuhan
University Press,2014(in Chinese)
4)Love Philosophy, Gao Liangzhi,Zhejiang University Press,2011
5)Good Philosophy and Common Values, Gao Liangzhi,China Culture
Press,2014(in Chinese)
6)Beauty Philosophy, Gao Liangzhi,Wuhan University Press,2014
7)Does Man have Soul? —Soul Philosophy and Scientific Rational Belief,
Gao Liangzhi, Zhejiang University Press,2015(in Chinese)
8)Synthesis of Chinese and Western Philosophy,Gao Liangzhi , Zhejiang
University Press,2015(in Chinese)
His books on philosophy obtain high evaluation in the academic circle
and by the readers in China .
Chapter 1
Two Worldwide Philosophy Systems
and their Main Differences
Many countries in the world have their own philosophers and
philosophical thinking ,but there are few worldwide philosophy
systems. So called worldwide philosophy systems are those
philosophy thinking received by the people not only in one country ,but
also in many countries in the world.
Up to now, mainly four philosophy systems have their worldwide
influences in the world : 1,Buddhist philosophy; 2,Islam
philosophy;3,Western philosophy;4,Chinese philosophy (mainly
Confucianism).
1, About Religious Philosophy Systems
Both Buddhist philosophy and Islam philosophy are religious
philosophy systems. The main difference between religion and
philosophy are that religion depends on human’s belief ,but philosophy
depends on human ‘s reason .
Doctrines in different religions came from religious classics, such as
the Bible ,the Koran ,many Buddhist Scriptures,etc .Believers believe
those doctrines by their belief ,but not by their reason .Christian
philosopher Augustinus said :”Get your understanding by belief”. It means
that the basic method for believers to have various knowledge are only
belief ,not others .
Why there are religious philosophies? There are mainly two reasons :
1, Owing to the fact that reason is the human nature.for the purpose
to have more people believing certain religion ,the doctrines of religion
need to have rational certification or the help from the theories of some
famous philosophers . For example, Aurelius Augustinus (340-430 AD )
took the philosophy thinking of Plato to explain the doctrines of
Christianity .Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274 AD ) took the philosophy
thinking of Aristotle to certify the doctrines of Christianity They were the
two most famous Christian philosophers .
2, Some religions themselves have certain philosophy thinking in
their doctrines .
In various religions , Buddhism has stronger philosophical character .
In Buddhism, there is no Savior .Bodhisattva is not the God ,but a man
who has the highest consciousness.
Buddhism has a high level of Epistemology ,Cittamatra is the Buddhism
theory of understanding, which was established by Asanga and
Vasabandhu in 3-4 century. In China's Tang dynasty , what Xuan Zang
(玄(cid:0) ，602-664) preached was mostly Cittamatra. Cittamatra said that
man has 8 kinds of perceptions that are :eye,ear,nose,tongue,body
,idea,Manas and Alaya. The first five perceptions are feelings of man.
The six one is the human's rational thinking. Manas is also called “Self
Perception" which means that man thinks of his past and future .
.Alaya ,which is also called “Storage Perception", means the
accumulated ability of man's total knowledge . You may see that the
content of Buddhism Epistemology is plentiful and rather complete .
Islam Philosophy is closely related with Arabian philosophy which
has been created by Arabian nation .The main contents in Islam
philosophy are explanation of the Koran .But in Islam philosophy or
Arabian philosophy, there are many contents of natural philosophy
which achieves a high level .
It should be mentioned that ,in the Middle Ages, the Arabian people
have played important role in conservation and translation of
philosophy books of ancient Greece, which provided the condition of
Europe's Renaissance in 15-16 centuries
Based on discussion of the Islam doctrines, Islam philosophy
extracted philosophic thinking of ancient Greece. With the help of rational
analysis and logical certification, it combined knowledge and belief together.
The famous philosopher Ibn Rushed (1126-1198) presented the
theory of “Double Truth”, which considered that both philosophy
knowledge and religious knowledge are Truth. He put philosophy
knowledge at the first .
In summary, Christian philosophy, Buddhist philosophy and Islam
philosophy are all religious philosophies. Although they have certain
valuable and rational contents ,their basic task is to serve for certifying
the doctrines of their own religions. This is why they couldn’t be said as
independent and rational philosophy systems .
2, Two Worldwide Philosophy Systems
independent of Religion
In the world ,there are only two worldwide philosophy systems which
are complete ,systematic and independent of religion.
Their completeness are found in that both of them contain
ontology ,epistemology ,moral philosophy ,political philosophy ,beauty
philosophy, emotion philosophy etc .
Their Systematicness are found in the following facts:
Chinese philosophy began in Yi Jing(the Book of Change)in Zhou
dynasty, about 1000 years before Christ. In the Spring and Autumn Period
and Warring States Period ,there appeared many famous philosophers ,as
Lao Zi(老子),Confucius（孔子） ,Mo Zi（墨子） ,Zhuang Zi（庄子）
,Mencius（孟子）、Xun Zi (荀子) etc .There were the Study of Confucian
Classics in Han dynasty, Study of Metaphysics in Wei and Jin
dynasties,Neo-Confucianism in Song dynasty ,Mind theory in Ming dynasty
and Modern Chinese philosophy represented by Xiong Shili （熊十力）、
Feng Youlan（(cid:0) 友(cid:0) ）, etc. Chinese philosophy has been inherited and
developed systematically .
Western philosophy began in Natural Philosophy presented by
Tales(624-546 BC ). There were three outstanding Greek philosophers:
Socrates ,Plato and Aristotle. There was Christian philosophy in the
Middle Ages. After the Enlightenment Movement , there appeared many
famous philosophers, as John Locke, George Berkeley , David
Hume,Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant ,Friedrich Hegel ,etc .In modern
period ,there appears many philosophical schools ,as Life
philosophy,Phenomenology,Existentialism ,Analytic philosophy
,Philosophy of Science ,etc . Western philosophy has been inherited and
developed systematically .
These two philosophy systems ,even though they were influenced by
religions to a certain extent and extracted some fine ideological elements
from religions ,they are independent of religions .They don’t serve for any
religion. They have been built on human reason completely .
Both of them have wide influences upon the world . Chinese philosophy
are received by both in mainland and in Taiwan of China .It is received by
many countries in Asia (Japan ,Korea , Singapore, etc ) and by people
originated in China and now living in all countries of the world .
Western Philosophy are received by countries in Europe ,USA ,Canada
,Australia, etc . It is studied and received by people in many Asia
countries ,as China ,Japan ,etc .
3，Main Differences between Chinese and
Description:Overview: This book makes a complete comparison and synthesis of Chinese and Western philosophy in following aspects:
