Comparative (Chinese-Western) Introduction to Philosophy

Chad Hansen MB 307

Review Sampling intro to philosophical thought

Norms and tools of philosophy Arguments

Six traditions: China and West Broadly historical order

Plato, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Nietzsche, Zen, Dewey

Text available in philosophy department Web page http://www.hku.hk/philodep/ch

Bulletin Board for discussion argument http://www.hku.hk/discussboard/ and select

Comparative Philosophy Student - valid

Requirements: 100% coursework includes tests Coursework=quizzes, take-home mid-

term and in-class final Argumentative focus Quizzes almost weekly on Tuesdays

Grading 5-1 (explanation) Both exams: ten questions in

advance and prepare eight

Objectives 3 goals of philosophy education

Intensive: logic, deep analysis Extensive: range of options, open mind Insight, wisdom, judgment

Disciplined discourse—discussion lecture Ask questions as they come up Special times with review

Tutorials: 4 with 5 -6 each (by vote)

Warnings Plagiarism is not crediting a quotation

Minimally put quotes around it—name:year in parentheses or footnote

Zero for assignment, Zero for course, suspension

Penalty for late submission Graduated: decide when better to get it

done well (rule of A result) ¼ per day for quiz, 2% per day for tests

Basic Divisions Of Philosophy: Metaphysics: theory of being/reality

Idealism, materialism, dualism, monism (2 senses)

Epistemology: theory of knowledge Rationalism, empiricism, skepticism,

pragmatism Logic—includes semantics (meaning) Ethics—Value theory, prudence, art,

politics etc.

Questions?Quiz Question:Formulate an argument proving that the conclusion of any sound argument is true. (Hint: you will need the definition of 'argument' of 'valid' and of 'sound'.)

Greek Rationalism Start on Western Philosophy

Greek Rationalism Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Pre-Socratics

Thales: Water

Western philosophy starts in mid-east Differences there at the beginning

Thales: stargazer and practical businessman Navigation and trade

"Everything is water" Growth and range of states of matter Early scientific theory (explain change)

Implicit Model Of Knowledge Knowledge as a description of reality Metaphysics and science as the

model Philosophy = love of knowledge "Natural" philosophy is early western

science Knowing is reducing to one,

unchanging thing Theoretical reduction of many to one

Dichotomies Of Greek Rationalism Western "perennial problems" of

philosophy Assumption: explanation is reducing many to

one Assumption: something permanent underlies

all change Shared with Indian Buddhism Only the permanent is real

Dependent or caused = unreal

Heraclitus: Fire

Series of other ‘reality’ candidates: Air or the indescribable absolute, or "love"

Often likened to Daoism – constant change The one is fire--symbolic "substance" for flux

Reality is no permanent reality (no substance) No reality, only change

Everything includes its opposite In the process of becoming it (yin-yang)

Also Gradual Substance Change

Cannot step in same river twice One river, one (?) water Mass stuffs and countable objects

with “lifetimes”A thing v the stuff it consists ofNot a concern in China

The Law (Logos) ”Exists"

All things in constant change 'Logos' crucial to Western philosophy

Discourse, words (bible), logic, reason, and –ology: Law: “all things change”

Link to 道 dao—guiding discourse Cannot know changing things

Knowing cannot catch up Knowledge is of reality so must be permanent Western knowledge is of eternal "truths"

Add "knowledge-belief" to the list of rationalist dichotomies

Parmenides: Being Exact opposite: nothing changes Influence on Plato – and western

philosophy Primacy of reason over experience Reason tells us experience is deceptive

What is is; what is not is not Cannot “become”

Truths of reason (tautologies/analytic truths)

Experience A Fantasy/Dream What is not cannot become

anything Experience is that things change

and move but rationally impossible Proof is hard to understand

Two possible elementsStart tale of differences

First Element "Cannot speak or think about what is

not" We can only refer to things that exist "Santa Claus lives at the north pole"

If Santa does not exist, the sentence is false

Consequently, we cannot think or speak about non-being

Second Element ‘Being’ tied to the Indo-European verb--to

be (copula) Two uses in Indo-European languages

Predicative and existential Predicative: needed to make a sentence or

assertion 他高 Links things to a subject To describe a thing is to say what "is" of it

What its existence includes

Existential “X is” = X exists = there is ( 有 ) X Blending the two uses leads to the view

that all change is impossible—why(?) To describe a change entails that it no longer

is what it was before This is to change “is not” to “is”

Parmenides construes change as non-being becomes being

That is impossible Hence change is impossible

Classical Chinese Case

Literary Chinese has no copula “exists” expressed with 有無 Also no required subject term Doesn’t have a puzzle about how being

can change This “Perennial” problem turns out to be a

problem of only one philosophical culture A problem rooted in the language used to talk

of existence and description

Guo Xiang: Like Parmenides 無 cannot become 有 and 有 cannot

become 無 Although it changes constantly, it never

ceases to exist So accepts that reality is in constant change—

no problem Can deny movement from non-being to being

without denying all change