试论中西在认识本原问题上的异同

The Similarities and Dissimilarities of the Origin of Cognition between Chinese and the Westerners

几千年来,西人一直探寻万物之本原。泰勒斯至德谟克利特为自然哲学一派;毕达哥拉斯与巴门尼德经亚里士多德再经伽利略再经牛顿至于爱因斯坦为数理科学之另一派。然而,他们异道而同回,认为"无"乃万物之本原。无则无焉,然而真有生发万物之健力。中国圣人强字本原曰"易"、"道"、"无",所示与西人不异。此三者同一,所异者,名也。圣人臻于斯境,非藉物质之器,亦非用人造之知识系,而运发精神之感力。

For thousands of years, the westerners have been exploring the origin of the universe. From Thales to Democritus is a school called the Natural Philosophy; the other line of descent which bases its scientific research on mathematics, logics and experiments originated from Pythagoras and Parmenides, and was handed down through Aristotle, Galileo and Newton, to Einstein. Despite the different routes they have reached the same goal by agreeing that it is nothingness that generated the myriad things in our cosmos, metaphysically but powerfully. The Chinese sages nominated the original source of the myriad things as Yi, Tao and Nothingness. Both Chinese and their Western counterparts are not violating each other in this case. The three terms signify the ONE, only differing in the linguistic signifiers. With the assistance of neither materials nor epistemology, the sages reached that extent by merging with the ONE spiritually.