Reconstructing Chinese metaphysics

The study of Chinese philosophy in the English-speaking world has largely focused on ethical and political theories. In comparison, Chinese metaphysics—here understood primarily as theories regarding the nature, components, and operating principles of reality—has been far less researched and recognized. In this essay, we examine various meanings of “metaphysics” as it has been used in denoting a branch of philosophy and make the case that metaphysics is an important part of Chinese philosophy. We argue for the need to study Chinese metaphysics as a serious field of scholarship. We also present some most recent studies of Chinese metaphysics by leading scholars of Chinese philosophy who publish in the English-speaking world. This essay aims to show that not only that Chinese metaphysics is an appropriate and legitimate subject of scholarly research but it can also be a fruitful subfield of in the study in Chinese philosophy.

This volume of new essays is the first English-language anthology devoted to Chinese metaphysics. The essays explore the key themes of Chinese philosophy, from pre-Qin to modern times, starting with important concepts such as yin-yang and qi and taking the reader through the major periods in Chinese thought - from the Classical period, through Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, into the twentieth-century philosophy of Xiong Shili. They explore the major traditions within Chinese philosophy, including Daoism and Mohism, and a broad range of metaphysical topics, including monism, theories of individuation, and the relationship between reality and falsehood. The volume will be a valuable resource for upper-level students and scholars of metaphysics, Chinese philosophy, or comparative philosophy, and with its rich insights into the ethical, social and political dimensions of Chinese society, it will also interest students of Asian studies and Chinese intellectual history. Cambridge University Press 2015.

Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130-1200) is commonly and justifiably regarded as the greatest synthesizer of neo-Confucian thinking. One of the things that make neo-Confucianism new, in comparison to classical Confucianism, is its development of moral metaphysics as an onto-theological articulation of classical Confucian moral values. Of course, classical Confucians do not reject metaphysics. As a matter of fact, almost all the terms and even ideas neo-Confucians use in their project of metaphysical articulation can be found in Confucian classics. It is only that, in classical Confucianism, such terms and ideas either lack a clearly metaphysical significance or, if they do have such significance, they do not occupy a central place in their system. The main concern of classical Confucians is how to live a moral life, not to provide a metaphysical articulation of such a moral life.

Review of Chinese Metaphysics and Its Problems (Cambridge, 2015), eds. Chenyang Li and Franklin Perkins

This collection of essays presents various topics in Chinese philosophy to be used “as a resource for problems in contemporary philosophy” (xiii). The editor, Brian Bruya, aims to break down the barriers between mainstream analytic philosophers and those working in Chinese philosophy, by presenting philosophically engaging ideas in Chinese philosophy that offer alternatives to the currently dominant philosophical trends. The book contains three parts, with the following themes: moral psychology, political philosophy and ethics, metaphysics and epistemology. There are thirteen chapters altogether, written by scholars who are well versed in both Western and Chinese philosophy. The overall methodology in all chapters is, as one of the authors, Bo Mou, puts it, “constructive engagement”—“to explore how, by way of reflective criticism and argumentation, distinct approaches from differ- ent philosophical traditions can learn from each other."

, a preeminent philosopher of twentieth-century China, tried to build a modern Chinese metaphysics that was at once universal and based on a structure of traditional Chinese concepts such as li/principles and qi/vital energy. His intellectual borrowings included New Realism, an early twentieth-century school of philosophy that attempted to provide a scientific basis for metaphysics. New Realism's affirmation of the objectivity of a priori logical relationships in the universe enabled Feng to construct a metaphysical structure of philosophy in China without becoming bogged down in the debate of the priority of practice over principle in Chinese history. While most published work has treated Feng's famous "negative method" as the "more Chinese" part of his work in contrast to his writings influenced by New Realism, this article argues that Feng's logical/metaphysical construct of philosophy in China sought to build a metaphysical discourse of experience by employing both a logical/analytical and a "negative" nonverbal method resembling Chan Buddhist practices.

Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems. Edited by Li Chenyang and Franklin Perkins. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 120-129.

Metaphysical Foundations of Knowledge and Ethics in Chinese and European Philosophy

He is also book review editor for the academic series Philosophy East and West. GÜNTER ZÖLLER (Philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Munich. He is editor of the academic book series Spekulation und Erfahrung, Europaea Memoria and Studien zur Phänomenologie und Praktischen Philosophie.