论李约瑟的机体论“理学”

Joseph Needham on Neo-Confucianism from the Perspective of Organicism

怀特海机体哲学注重整体性、内在性、关系性等概念,李约瑟以之作为诠释宋代理学的总体框架,并进而将以朱熹为代表的宋代理学定位为“机体哲学”。在此一新视域下,理学的“理”得以避免沦为自亚里士多德以来的西方各种思想的注脚,而成为宇宙秩序化和组织化的动态原则。与此同时,具有宇宙演化论和本体论含义的理学命题“无极而太极”被改写成了具有机体论色彩的“最高的中心是没有中心”的意思。显然,怀特海机体哲学也限制了李约瑟的思维,阻碍了李约瑟对某些具体理学概念的理解,导致其出现某种对理学跨文化的误读。

Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism focuses on the concepts of integrity,immanence,and relationship,taken by Joseph Needham as his overall framework to interpret Song Neo-Confucianism and further to define Song Neo-Confucianism represented by Zhuism as“philosophy of organism”.In the context of such a new perspective,the Neo-Confucian concept“li”(principle)can avoid becoming the footnote of various kinds of Western thought since Aristotelianism,and is regarded as the dynamic fundamental rule of the orderization and organization of the universe.In addition,the Neo-Confucian proposition that“Wuji er taiji”(indefinite ultimate is prior to supreme ultimate)colored by cosmological evolutionism and ontology is rewritten into the one with the meaning that“that which has no Pole and yet(itself)the Supreme Pole”colored by organism.Obviously,Whitehead’s philosophy of organism also restricts Needham’s thinking and hinders his understanding of certain specific Neo-Confucian concepts,which leads to a certain cross-cultural misreading.