利玛窦与西方哲学的中传及对中国哲学的发现

Matteo Ricci,the Introduction of Western Philosophy to China,and the Discovery of Philosophy in China

以利玛窦为代表的耶稣会士来华传教时,正是亚里士多德在西方如日中天的时代。耶稣会士所传来的“西学”,主要是文艺复兴之后在西方盛行的希腊哲学,而非西方近代哲学。利玛窦是第一个以西方哲学为标准发现中国有哲学的欧洲人,也是第一个明确提出了“中国哲学”这一概念的人。利玛窦所指称的“真正的哲学”不可能脱离经院哲学的底本“。真正的哲学”在17世纪之后的欧洲产生了分化,即形而上学与数学和自然科学分化、哲学与神学分化、逻辑学与形而上学分化,等等。利玛窦等耶稣会士为中国人了解西方的学校教育和学科设置打开了一个窗口,引发了中国知识精英对“西学”的兴趣和向西方学习继而赶超西方(“会通与超胜”)的意愿。尽管从明末直至鸦片战争长达二百多年的历史中,中国并没有认真参照西方来改革自己的教育体制和学科建设,但它却为弥补中国学术不足、设立近代西式大学提供了最初的范例。

When the Jesuits, represented by Matteo Ricci, came to China to preach, Aristotelianism was in his prime in the West. The“ Western learning”,introduced by the Jesuits is mainly Greek philosophy prevailing in the West after the Renaissance, instead of modern Western philosophy. Matteo Ricci was the first European who discovered philosophy in China based on Western philosophy as the standard and the first who put forward the concept“ philosophy in China”;What Matteo Ricci referred to as the“ true philosophy”cannot be divorced from the basis of scholasticism. After the 17th century, the“ true philosophy”experienced some differentiations in Europe, that is, the differentiation between metaphysics and mathematics and natural science, between philoso phy and theology, between logic and metaphysics, and so on;Matteo Ricci and other Jesuits opened a window for Chinese people to learn more about Western school education and discipline setting, which aroused the inter est of Chinese intellectual elites in“ Western learning”and their desire to learn from the West and then catch up with and surpass the West“(communication, integration, and then surpass”). Although China did not serious ly refer to the West to reform its education system and discipline construction in the history of more than two hundred years from the end of Ming Dynasty to the opium war, it provided an initial example for making up for China’sacademic deficiency and setting up modern university with Western style.