| Volume 6, Number 1, January 2009 |
Phenomenological Aesthetics in China
by 陈志远 Chen Zhiyuan |
Is Whitehead Relevant in China Today?
by John B. Cobb, Jr. 小约翰·柯布
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IN the strict and original sense, both phenomenology and aesthetics are not inherent parts of Chinese traditional thinking. Hence Chinese phenomenological aesthetics include its introduction and dissemination, professional studies and expanded applications, as well as comparative studies and cultural mergence between this subject and Chinese traditional thinking.
The first comprehensive and accurate introduction about Husserl’s phenomenology in China appeared in 1929. But the political disturbance of several decades thereafter shattered any hope of a continual translation and in-depth research. The only exception occurred in 1965, when Xu Fuguan published in Hong Kong his famous book, The Spirit of Chinese Art, in which he believed that Chuang Tzu’s heart, in “fasting of the heart” (xin zhai), was analogous to Husserl’s pure consciousness after the epoche and was therefore the “subject of art spirit”. It is the first book we can find about phenomenological aesthetics in China. In 1980, Li Youzheng’s introduction to Roman Ingarden indicated the revival of the research into...
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I WOULD not be here if I did not believe the answer is emphatically Yes. If I may make some bold, sweeping generalizations, I will claim the following.
The religions and philosophies of India and China are full of profound insights badly needed in the contemporary world in both East and West. However, they had their fullest development in an age when science was not an important part of cultural and intellectual life, and technology was not highly developed. They were formulated in less continuity with mathematics than was true of Western philosophy. They do not express a refined historical consciousness.
These traditions richly contribute to the interior and daily life of many people in the East, and in recent decades they have attracted much appreciative attention in the West as well. But beyond the very personal sphere, they have more ambiguous effects. For example, they continue to inform much of the attitude toward political authority. Having developed in a context where authority was concentrated at the top, they do little to undergird a more democratic spirit...
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| Issue 6.1 |
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The Sorcerer’s
Apprentices
—A Global Tale
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