In Modern Confucian philosophy the notion of the moral Self which is expressed through the natural moral substance (xingti) represents both the foundation of each individual and the core of the universal reason. The indivisibility of the moral Self from its concrete activities within the social sphere differs in many various aspects from prevailing Western political and philosophical theories that are based on the separation of the empirical and transcendent subject. Hence, this holistic special feature of the moral Self is closely related to one of the basic paradigms of Chinese intellectual history, i.e. the paradigm of immanent transcendence, which is also known as the paradigm of 'radical’ or 'pure' transcendence. The present article introduces and analyses both above-mentioned, mutually intertwined traditional notions through the lens of modern interpretations, focusing upon the philosophical work written by the representatives of the second generation of Taiwanese Modern Confucians.
COBISS.SI-ID: 56179298
The present article deals with the philosophical theory and epistemological methodology of the Modern Confucian Xu Fuguan (1903–1982), a significant Taiwanese philosopher of the 20th century whose theoretical contributions are in the center of academic interests in China and Taiwan, though almost completely unexplored in the West. The article’s main focus is on Xu’s interpretation of the concepts of bodily recognition and the creative potential qi that are forming the basis of the unification of body and mind as a fundamental method of traditional Chinese perception of reality. For Xu Fuguan, this unification represented the proper way to achieve the awareness of the Moral Self and to thoroughly act in accordance with humanness (ren).
COBISS.SI-ID: 54670946
Through an analysis of the TV documentary series »Chinese Civilization«, screened in autumn 2008 on Chinese national television (CCTV9), the paper attempts to identify and analyze the key themes of the turn towards traditionalism in the contemporary Chinese thought. Special emphasis is placed on the reinterpretation of classical and traditional Chinese thought in these processes. These elements are analyzed by topics: construction and mutual constitution of the concepts of Chinese civilisation, culture and nation; reinterpretation of classical Chinese philosophy in the new ideology of harmonisation, and finally, alleged peaceful multiculturality, continuity and non-conflictuality of Chinese civilisation, that serve as the central elements of the newly construed national ideology. These topics of analysis of the TV series – which could be understood as contemporary China's political and ideological manifesto for the foreign audience – are juxtaposed to the actual phenomena in contemporary Chinese political and economic context.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537137604