Philosophy -- One Man's Overview

By Robert K. Wen

Philosophy One Mans Overview is for those who have had little contact with the discipline of philosophy but have a persistent interest in the subject, and for those who think recurrently about where they stand in the larger scheme of things. The book aims to expose the reader to a wide array of ideas from the worlds most influential philosophers, aiding him or her to become more perceptive and confident on lifes journey.
The book has three segments. The first provides an introduction to philosophy terminology, an explanation of philosophys relevance and usefulness, and a summary of the three major world philosophical traditions the Western, Indian and Chinese. The second discusses the three traditions more substantially, exploring the philosophies of such thinkers as Lao Zi, Aristotle and Kant, and philosophies such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Existentialism and Contemporary New Confucianism (). Finally, the third segment compares the three philosophical traditions. It also includes some thoughts of the author on world peace, as well as on a world viewbased on a deism with Nature as its representation--concerning human character, the living of a life as the purpose of life, and the meaning of death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491728833

Robert K. Wen

Robert K. Wen holds degrees from St. John’s University (Shanghai), the University of Virginia, and the University of Illinois. He and his wife, Judy, have three children and eight grandchildren and live in Sunnyvale, California.

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Copyright © 2014 Robert K. Wen.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-2882-6 (sc)

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iUniverse rev. date: 12/22/2017

"The front presents a range, side-view a crest,

All differ from the far, near, high or low.

The true face of Mount Lu we’d never get;

It’s all because we are inside its bowls."

Su Shi¹ – (1036 -1101 AD)

At the West Woods Cliff

橫看成嶺側成峰, 遠近高低各不同。

不識廬山真面目, 只緣身在此山中。

(宋 · 蘇軾 ·《題西林壁》)

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Part 1: Preliminaries

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Philosophy: Its Branches and Relations with Religion and Science

2.1 Four Branches of Philosophy

2.1.1 Ethics

2.1.2 Logic

2.1.3 Epistemology

2.1.4 Metaphysics

2.2 Philosophy and Religion

2.3 Philosophy and Science

Chapter 3: Introduction to Three Philosophical Traditions

3.1 Western Philosophy

3.2 Indian Philosophy

3.3 Chinese Philosophy

Part II: Western Philosophy

Chapter 4: Ancient Philosophers

4.1 Introduction

4.2 The Materialists

4.3 The Monists.

4.4 The Sophists

4.5 Socrates (ca. 470- 399 BC)

4.6 Plato (ca 428-348 BC)

4.7 Aristotle (384-322 BC)

4.8 The Cynics and the Skeptics

4.9 Epicureans and Stoics

4.10 Plotinus (204- 270)

4.11 Philo

Chapter 5: Medieval Philosophers of the Abrahamic God

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Saint Augustine (354-430 AD)

5.3 The Scholastic School and Saint Aquinas

5.4 The Peripatetics.

5.5 Maimonides

Chapter 6: Modern Philosophies

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Rationalism

6.3 Empiricism

6.4 Kantianism

6.5 Hegelianism

6.6 Occidental Buddhism

6.7 (The New) Materialism—Marxism

6.8 Existentialism and Phenomenology

6.9 Linguistics and Philosophy

6.10 Pragmatism

6.11 Process Philosophy and Bergsonism

6.11.1 Process Philosophy

6.11.2 Bergsonism

6.12 Postmodernism

Part III: Indian Philosophy

Chapter 7: The Vedic Religion and Philosophy

Chapter 8: The Heterodox Systems—Materialism, Jainism and Buddhism

8.1 Materialism

8.2 Jainism

8.3 Buddhism

Chapter 9: The Orthodox Systems

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Sankhya-Yoga

9.3 Nyaya-Vaisesika

9.4 Mimamsa

9.5 Vedanta

9.5.1 Introduction.

9.5.2 The Advaita School

9.5.3 The Theistic Vedantic Schools

9.5.3.1 Introduction

9.5.3.2 The Visistadvaita Sub-school

9.5.3.3 The Dvaita Sub-school

Part IV: Chinese Philosophies

Chapter 10: The Principles of Yin Yang and Five Elements

10.1 Introduction

10.2 The Principle of Yin Yang and the Book of Changes

10.3 The Theory of the Five Elements

10.4 Guan Zhong (管仲, 725-645 BC)

Chapter 11: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism

11.1 Introduction

11. 2 Confucianism

11.2.1 Introduction

11.2.2 Confucius

11.2.3 Mencius (Meng Zi, 孟子)

11.2.4 Xun Zi (荀子).

11.3 Taoism

11.3.1 Yang Zhu (楊朱, ca 440-360 BC)

11.3.2 Lao Zi (老子)

11.3.3 Zhuang Zi (莊子)

11.3.4 Tao-religion (道教)

11.4 (Chinese) Buddhism

11.5 Early Interactions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism—Dong Zhong Shu and the Neo-Taoists (董仲舒 和新道家)

Chapter 12: Neo-Confucianism (新儒家)

12.1 Introduction

12.2 The Cosmological Confucians—Zhou Dun Yi, Shao Yong and Zhang Zai (周敦頤, 邵雍 和 張載)

12.3 The School of Principle (the Cheng-Zhu School, 程朱的理學)

12.4 The School of Mind (The Lu-Wang School, 陸-王的心學)

Chapter 13: Moism,Legalism,and the Schoolof Names ( 墨家, 法家,和 名家 )

13.1 Mo Zi (墨子)

13.2 The Legalist School (法家)

13.3 The School of Names (名家)

Chapter 14: Entering Modernity

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Brief Historical Background

14.3 Philosophical Developments

14.3.1 Pre-Opium War

14.3.2 Post-Opium War

14.3.2.1. Th e Royalist Reformers

14.3.2.2 The First Generation Contemporary New Confucians

14.3.2.3 The New Culturists

14.3.2.4 The Second Generation Contemporary New Confucians

14.3.2.5 The Third Generation Contemporary New Confucians

14.3.2.6 Other Developments

Part V: Conclusion

Chapter 15: Comparative Philosophy and World Peace

15.1 Introduction

15.2 A Synopsis of Comparative Philosophy

15.3 World Peace

Chapter 16: A WORLD VIEW

16.1 Introduction

16.2 The Superbeing

16.3 Human Nature, Nurture, Character and Behavior

16.3.1 Human Nature, Nurture and Character

16.3.2 Character and Behavior

16.4 Meaning of Life—Living a Life

16.4.1 Introduction

16.4.2 Young Adulthood

16.4.3 Middle Age

16.4.4 Old Age

16.5 Meaning of Death

16.5.1 Introduction

16.5.2 Death and Life

16.5.3 Fear of Death and Alleviations

16.5.4 A Concluding Thought

Appendix 1: Logical Atomic Propositions and the World

Appendix 2: Philosophers Named in This Book

Appendix 3: Sanskrit Glossary

Appendix 4: Chronology of Chinese Dynasties

WORKS CITED

PREFACE

This book is for those who have had little contact with the discipline of philosophy but are interested in the subject. Like religion, it deals with thoughts of the at-the-end-of-the-day or soul-searching kind that sometimes appear after the labor at school, office, construction site, stock market, hospital, or wherever one does to make, or prepare to make, a living. A regular attempt to read up on the subject is often impeded by the time available after the day’s work and/or by the difficulties experienced in getting into most books on philosophy written by professional philosophers because of the seeming abstruseness of the terms and ideas.

One usually gets his² first encounter with philosophy in a high school, or more commonly, a college course on literature. But these introductions are often indirect, brief, and fragmentary. A complete course (or a series of courses) on the subject would represent such a substantial investment of time that many are not prepared to commit. But the mystique persists. One feels that there may be, in philosophy, something of uncommon spiritual or intellectual value, even cash value,³ yet does not have the time and/or patience to dig it up after spending so much energy making a living in the world.

For this curious mind, it would be worthwhile to read a book on the subject, short in length and simple in presentation, such that he could, in a few days’ time, get to know with some depth the ideas of a good number of the world’s great thinkers on the fundamental subjects of life. This book is an attempt to fulfill that purpose.

Retired, after having engaged myself in the engineering profession for some forty years, I have tried to be a student in the liberal arts field. In the past several years I did a fair amount of reading on philosophy. I thought, because of my background, I could be in a position to present the material in a fashion to bridge over some of the difficulties of its seeming impenetrability for those who, like myself before I acted on my interest, are uninitiated but would like to gain an overview of the subject. The book is introductory, elementary and relatively short. However, the coverage is broad—over all the three major philosophical traditions of the world, i.e., Western, Indian, and Chinese, as well as a comparison of them. Of course, such breadth entails a lack in comprehensiveness, rigor, as well as precision and evenness in the coverage, largely a reflection of my own limited reach and grasp, but it is hoped that as an initial formal encounter, this book will satisfy the intellectual appetite of the intended reader much like that of a traveler who wishes to See Europe (India or China) in Ten Days. That is the main purpose of the book.

Another purpose that follows somewhat naturally from the main one is to express some of my personal views on the general subject. First, associated with the regional distinctions of the above-mentioned comparison of philosophical traditions, and considering the relatedness of philosophy to culture and history, I present here some of my thoughts on the past and future of the relations between the peoples of the earth and on world peace. Finally, a world view, which may be regarded as a mean between deism and naturalism is presented in the last chapter. It argues for the idea that human nature is basically good, and focuses on the living of a life as the purpose of life in the modern setting.

I am indebted to Rafael Frank for his detailed review and suggestions for the first and the last two parts of the book, to Stephanie Ullmann for her editing of the first half of the book, to Robert Ullmann for his helpful comments, those on Chapters 5 and 16 in particular, and to Patricia Wen for her suggestions on the overall presentation of the book including a clarification of the relation between the two purposes of the book. I thank Chee T. Chan for allowing me to use his artwork for the book’s front cover and Bill Harrison for its design. I would also like to thank Michigan State University Library for their invaluable services. The support of Judy Wen is also acknowledged with deep appreciation.

This book is a revised version of the one published on 01/15/2015. The revisions are minor in the first fifteen chapter. However, about half of the last chapter, Chapter 16 on A World View, has been rewritten for greater clarity; the content remains largely unchanged.

PART 1

Preliminaries

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Reflect on the lives of men of the past. Even for the bright and fortunate, blessed with character and talent, accomplishing all the deeds and works, the heroes and heroines, the philosophers, scientists and poets, the reality is that life is brief and ends under earth or in fire. We have admiration and pride for them, (and essentially for all mankind), and yet the feeling is mixed with a dose of loss and futility. The average person lives from his childhood with almost total dependence on the good will of others to adolescence with the awareness of his growing strength on the one hand, and on the other, of increasing responsibility to adulthood when he must go through multiple tests of dealing with successes as well as failures, jubilations as well as disappointments. As the earth turns onward, at some point, he would begin to feel the increasing weight of something like a lowering curtain. It is often quoted that death and taxes are the two things that are certain for all people. Actually tax, at least the personal kind, could be avoided by an act of the government (for example, by taxing commerce only), but not death. Many have tried to be exempt from mortality (e.g., Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China⁴), but all, barring none, failed. Considering the world as we know it, we need to accept the fact that the average life span is appreciably less than a hundred.

Thus, isn’t life a sorrowful state? The shortness of it! A few years, then all is lost!⁵ What is there for the meaning of it? Wait! There is religion. You have faith, you live—forever. Not here, but in heaven. Truly, the most blessed people in the world are those who have that kind of genuine religious faith. If one does not have that, one can try rationality or humanism (to be a good person without religion). It is simply nature that man can live only a finite number of years on earth. No one can change that. However, if you cannot change the quantity of your life, you may be able to change to improve its quality. How? On this point, philosophy may help one gain some insight. How do we approach philosophy?

Most people’s lives include a material side and a spiritual one. But for the majority most of the weight is on the material side because of the sheer necessity of physical survival. The squirrels in the backyard spend almost all their time looking for food, but most of us would agree that this kind of mentality does not, for a human being, enhance one’s quality of life. Most of us would say that the purpose of life is the pursuit of happiness. Happiness depends on one’s values—what one considers most important and worthwhile. It differs for different people with different temperaments and upbringing. So how do you decide on your values?

You can follow your natural impulse, or choose rationally with thought. The former, natural to most animals, may at times lead to exciting experiences, even ones wildly so, but is fraught with pitfalls in which none wishes to be trapped. For the latter, there is no need to reinvent the wheel; it is more efficient to learn what our predecessors with the best minds thought and acted, and what the results were. Then we make our own judgment on them and decisions for ourselves. To get to the preceding step of making judgment and decisions is what learning and education is all about. That is why college programs, even for those majoring in science or technology, also include such subjects as history and literature that often introduce elements of philosophy.

The colloquial meaning of the word philosophy is an attitude of looking at things or perspective. For example, it is often used in the term philosophy of life meaning an attitude such as it is all about making money, or it is all about enjoying tranquility and nature. For this book, the word is associated with its formal meaning—as a discipline of learning (many colleges have a department of philosophy and offer degrees in it). Its usual definition is love of wisdom (philo means love; sophy means wisdom.) The description seems too general to be of real help. To be more specific, every writer on the subject seems to have his own definition (sometimes more than one by the same author).⁶ However, they usually don’t convey much to a beginner either. I would think of philosophy as signifying thoughts at a higher plane that provide a broader and farther view regarding important subjects of human concerns. Its concerns may be divided into two kinds. One involves subjects of more specific and limited domains, such as philosophy of history and philosophy of economics. They involve considerations of the principles of the individual disciplines. For example, we would consider, for history, such questions as whether heroes make history or history makes heroes. For economics, the philosophical questions of justice in welfare policies would be discussed.

Apart from such specialized areas, philosophy unspecified, deals with human life in general. Again here there are two aspects: (1) the meaning of life (what) and (2) the living of life (how). Roughly speaking, the first is related to the boundless heaven, and the second is concerned with the bounded earth and man. These are questions of general philosophy, which deals with such concepts as the universe, its purpose, reality, knowledge, and what constitutes a good life—subjects that, on the one hand, the intellectual side of a person finds alluring, and on the other, the practical side (in or after the workday grind at the office) has little patience for. Such thoughts do not help him to get a raise or a promotion, or to come up with a quick solution to the problem he has been assigned to work on. Philosophy, it seems, is a waste of time. For some people this may be true. For others, it may not be. Probably philosophy is beneficial to those who are pre-disposed to benefit from it; that is, people who are inclined to be thoughtful and contemplative. Philosophy does not deal with short-term goals. It helps to provide you with points of view by raising the elevation from which you take your view. The height enables you to see farther, and the breeze blows off the dust from your mind. It does not help you to make money, but its benefits cannot be bought with money either. It is a disposition that may be endowed by nature, but for most, it is the result of learning and thought. The study of philosophy would help you be less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life and more self-confident without requiring you to submit to the dogmas of a religion that your intellect may struggle with, nor keeping you from believing in a religion if you are so inclined. Even if your appreciation of philosophy does not change your outward life, it can make you a different person.⁷

The book covers synoptically a wide range of the different philosophies of the world. Philosophy at bottom is always anthropocentric (centered on men, thus not always cosmically objective). The existence of so many different philosophies arises from the fact that men have different perspectives, and objects (including material things and abstract ideas) have different aspects (as reflected in the poem by Su Shi on the Prologue page). For example, we have the contrast between of the Toaist’s (herein Taoism and its derivatives are used interchangeably with Daoism and its derivatives) seeking of man’s contentment in nature and the Confucian sense of one’s responsibility to other people; and that between the strictness of David Hume’s definition of knowledge and the generality of William James’ pragmatism that we ought to seek what is good for us instead of what is true.

For simplicity, the main coverage of the book will be the three world philosophical traditions. Here a tradition has the qualities of continuity and self-reference. This means that the philosophical discussions within a tradition contains certain basic ideas, nomenclature and patterns of thought which hold over a long period of time, and which generally an insider follows easily and an outsider would have to learn to understand.⁸ The three traditions are the Western (in the main European and North American), Indian, and Chinese. The practice of limiting to these three has been recognized, and in some cases justifications are given by a number of writers,⁹ although there are other significant culturally identified philosophies, such as the Jewish and Japanese ones, that could be recognized as independent traditions rather than being lumped or subsumed within the Western for the former, and within the Chinese for the latter.

The covered philosophies are reviewed in synoptic form based on materials gleaned from published works authored by established professional philosophers in each tradition.¹⁰ Thus, the basis of literature review in here is mostly second-hand.¹¹

The book is organized into five parts. Part I: Preliminaries, which contains introductory material including definition of terms, and outlines of the three philosophical traditions. More detailed presentations of the Western, Indian, and Chinese philosophies comprise Parts II, III, and IV, respectively.¹² Part V contains comparisons of the three traditions and some thoughts of mine. The comparisons are summarized from several books specifically on the topic. As they are connected with a regionalization of the world, they naturally induced associative thoughts of the practical or geopolitical relations between the nations in the regions. Hence they are followed by a section (Section 15.3) on world peace that expresses some views of mine on the relations between the East and West from a philosophical and historical perspectives. The final chapter contains my notions of a world view, or life philosophy. The fundamental idea is one of Nature as a representation of a Superbeing, a deity, both immanent and transcendent. In addition, the theory is proposed that the very first intuition of a human being is that his coming to existence is a matter of great luck, and the consequent influence on his basic nature toward goodness. Lastly, the life stages of a common man in the modern setting are sketched.

For the reader’s convenience in referencing, at the end of the book are attached appendices including a list of philosophers mentioned in the book, a glossary of Sanskrit terms, and a chronology of the Chinese dynasties.

CHAPTER 2

Philosophy: Its Branches and Relations with Religion and Science

2.1 Four Branches of Philosophy

As there is no unique definition of philosophy, there is no unique definition of the branches of philosophy nor their individual definitions. For our purposes, we may consider philosophy as having four branches, i.e., ethics, logic, epistemology and metaphysics. There are other relatively less discussed branches, such as the philosophy of values and cosmology, which for simplicity are not explicitly considered herein. However, the former is often referred to in ethics, and the latter in metaphysics. The named four branches are presented in the following in the order of decreasing degrees of familiarity, for a general reader, of the concepts involved.

2.1.1 Ethics

The common meaning of ethics is the philosophy of morality or moral behavior. In theoretical philosophy, it means more. It is about how one should live one’s life. Certainly to live it by following moral principles is an important part of it. But when the great Greek philosopher Aristotle (ca. 384-322 BC) talks about ethics, he included such considerations as enjoying friendship and contemplation in privacy as well.

How to live one’s life? For many people, if not most, this is all they would care about. Thus it ought to be the most important part of philosophy. For Confucius (551- 479 BC), indeed, his interest is practically all about ethics: mainly how to deal with human relations—with family members, friends, the sovereign, etc. In ancient Greece, the philosopher Zeno the Stoic (ca. 335-263 BC), "as well as the Roman Stoics, regarded all theoretical studies as subordinate to ethics: he says that philosophy is like an orchard, in which logic is the walls, physics the trees, and ethics the fruit¹³; or like an egg, in which logic is the shell, physics the white, and ethics the yolk."¹⁴ A typical example of ethics is the golden rule in the Bible: As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise, or a similar statement by Confucius. They will be compared in Section 6.4 with Kant’s Categorical Imperative, another similar rule. Yet in spite of the preceding, in terms of energy expended, many philosophers, particularly of the West, appear to be more interested in the other parts of philosophy considered in the following.

2.1.2 Logic

The dictionary definition of logic is the science of correct reasoning. The common meaning of logical is that which makes sense. A feature of philosophy is that it needs to persuade by reason, not by assertion or by authority like Because I say so! Opinion is not substitute for reason. The latter is a basic component of philosophy. Some philosophers consider logic as a branch of epistemology defined in the next sub-section.

In Western philosophy the discipline of logic began with Aristotle’s syllogism. It consists of three statements or propositions. (A proposition consists of a subject and a predicate (like in basic grammar), and it represents an idea that may or may not be true.) The three propositions of a syllogism together represent a correct reasoning process. A stock example is as follows:

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore: Socrates is mortal.

The first statement is called the major premise; the second the minor premise; and the third the conclusion. We see that the truth of the conclusion is supported by the truth of the two premises. If either premise is questionable, so will be the conclusion. For example, in the syllogism:

All men sometimes commit an immoral act.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore: Socrates sometimes commits an immoral act.

The conclusion is not necessarily true because the major premise is not necessarily true. However, we note that the reasoning (its process) is correct. Later on, in the discussion of Indian philosophy, there will be shown a five-statement syllogism.

Philosophy deals with the search for truth. Truth may be represented as knowledge expressible in terms of statements or propositions. In order to represent truth, the validity of a proposition needs to be established by arguments or proofs. For arguments or proofs, in more general terms than syllogism, the two most common methods are the method of deduction and the method of induction. Syllogism is a method of deduction. It goes from top down. One adopts some general principle (implying the presumption that the principle is valid), and makes his argument that the case being argued is a particular one that is covered by the general principle. The previous example of syllogism is an example of the deductive method. The deductive method is independent of experience; essentially it depends on some supposedly self-evident truth.

The method of induction goes from bottom up. It tries to argue for a general principle based on the demonstrated truth (experience) of some particular cases. For example, one may argue that since Socrates was an ancient Greek and a philosopher, and so were Plato and Aristotle, therefore, we may conclude that all ancient Greek men are philosophers. Of course, it is not true. Another example: every noon I went to the Ritz Restaurant I saw Mr. Smith dining there. I might conclude that he dines there every noon. The probability that my conclusion is valid is the higher the more frequently I had gone to that restaurant at noon. Thus induction is based on experience or empirical evidence. If one speaks of the probability of some proposition’s being true as 100 percent, a proof of truth by induction can never reach 100 percent.

2.1.3 Epistemology

Epistemology means the theory of knowledge. It considers such questions as how do we know that what we (think we) know is true? What is the source of our knowledge? Is it reliable? Is there a limit to what we can know?

There are two kinds of knowledge: a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge. (The a here is Latin, meaning from, not the a meaning one, like in a book.) A priori knowledge is knowledge that follows from some principle or theory that is presumed to be true. Its truth, like that which is innate, by nature or God given, or like mathematics, and demonstrated laws of physics, is self-evident, needing no experience for proof. It is knowledge by deduction. On the other hand, a posteriori knowledge is that which is gained via experience, or from theory based on experience. It is knowledge by induction.

An obvious source of knowledge is by perception, which includes the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. There are two views regarding knowledge by perception. One is that an object is known directly—basically the operation is between just two entities: the perceiver and the object of perception. The other is indirectly, generally known as the theory of representative perception, which involves three entities: (1) the perceiver; (2) some psychic media that would represent the object; and (3) the object. The entity (2) serves as a link between (1) and (3), i.e., the perceiver and the object. An example of indirect perception appears in Section 9.2.

There are other means to knowledge besides perception. For example, one source is by testimony, i.e., by what someone (whom you trust, like a well-respected teacher, or a well-established author) tells you. Knowledge is part of consciousness. Consciousness is what is stored in or on one’s mind. Consciousness and mind are abstract terms. Brain is a physical, biological object. (Some people believe that consciousness and mind are functions of the brain, and some believe that they are associated with a non-physical entity called soul.)

Modern scientific research in cognitive psychology has a broader definition of consciousness as having two parts: One has to do with information access. The brain gets input from a sensing organ (e.g., the eye) and work on it by some module (like a subroutine or sub-program in a computer model for the mind) developed through evolution (interestingly the eye only gives a two-dimensional upside down picture and it is up to the workings of the brain to transform that into a three-dimensional correctly oriented image of