Exemplary language can,on the one hand,assist a listener to understand what a speaker intends to express,and,on the other hand,provoke a kind of practical force to the listener.Exemplary language is everywhere in our ...Exemplary language can,on the one hand,assist a listener to understand what a speaker intends to express,and,on the other hand,provoke a kind of practical force to the listener.Exemplary language is everywhere in our daily life,such as the bedtime stories told by a mother to her child,literary works,and judicial precedents.Many Western philosophers have expounded on this type of language.Exemplary language has become a topic for philosophical discussions.In Chinese classics,there are many expressions using exemplary language,but in different forms.Was there any philosophical reflection on these exemplary languages?The differences between the Chinese and the Western exemplary language initiate our discussion about the different subjectivity of exemplary language,or narrative subjectivity,for narrative will be discussed in this article as an extraordinary exemplary language.As a kind of exemplary language,narrative is analyzed by Ricoeur into two elements:time and meaning.Is his analysis also valid for Chinese narrative language?Can we discuss the difference of narrative subjectivity according to these two elements?The author is going to trace the origins of different subjectivity by analyzing distinct ways of creating characters/words which determinate different language forms in Chinese and the Western culture.The author finds that“linear time”(or objective time)still plays a significant role in the Western culture;by contrast,subjective time seems more dominant in Chinese culture.This also determines the narrative time for Chinese.As for the meaning,there are different purposes and ways of using narrative in Chinese culture and the Western culture,which are reflected,for example,in the different purposes of the Chinese and Western drama.This article aims to explore Chinese narrative subjectivity based on Ricoeur’s research of narrative.展开更多
In this article, I offer a provisional analysis of the philosophical semantics of“wisdom” in the thought of the New Confucian thinker Tang Junyi. I begin by providing some pointers concerning the concept of wisdom i...In this article, I offer a provisional analysis of the philosophical semantics of“wisdom” in the thought of the New Confucian thinker Tang Junyi. I begin by providing some pointers concerning the concept of wisdom in general and situating the discourse on wisdom in comparative philosophy in the context of the later Foucault＇s and Pierre Hadot＇s historical investigations into ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy as a mode of spiritual self-cultivation and self-transformation. In the remainder of the paper, I try to describe and think through what Foucault identifies as a “Cartesian moment,” in which self-knowledge becomes the ultimate precondition for the ethico-spiritual project of “caring for the self,” in Tang＇s approach of wisdom. In the course of my argument, I outline the complex relation between his vision of a renewed Confucian mode of religious practice on the one hand and his philosophical presuppositions conceming the transcendental status of subjectivity and the reflexivity of consciousness on the other.展开更多
文摘Exemplary language can,on the one hand,assist a listener to understand what a speaker intends to express,and,on the other hand,provoke a kind of practical force to the listener.Exemplary language is everywhere in our daily life,such as the bedtime stories told by a mother to her child,literary works,and judicial precedents.Many Western philosophers have expounded on this type of language.Exemplary language has become a topic for philosophical discussions.In Chinese classics,there are many expressions using exemplary language,but in different forms.Was there any philosophical reflection on these exemplary languages?The differences between the Chinese and the Western exemplary language initiate our discussion about the different subjectivity of exemplary language,or narrative subjectivity,for narrative will be discussed in this article as an extraordinary exemplary language.As a kind of exemplary language,narrative is analyzed by Ricoeur into two elements:time and meaning.Is his analysis also valid for Chinese narrative language?Can we discuss the difference of narrative subjectivity according to these two elements?The author is going to trace the origins of different subjectivity by analyzing distinct ways of creating characters/words which determinate different language forms in Chinese and the Western culture.The author finds that“linear time”(or objective time)still plays a significant role in the Western culture;by contrast,subjective time seems more dominant in Chinese culture.This also determines the narrative time for Chinese.As for the meaning,there are different purposes and ways of using narrative in Chinese culture and the Western culture,which are reflected,for example,in the different purposes of the Chinese and Western drama.This article aims to explore Chinese narrative subjectivity based on Ricoeur’s research of narrative.
文摘In this article, I offer a provisional analysis of the philosophical semantics of“wisdom” in the thought of the New Confucian thinker Tang Junyi. I begin by providing some pointers concerning the concept of wisdom in general and situating the discourse on wisdom in comparative philosophy in the context of the later Foucault＇s and Pierre Hadot＇s historical investigations into ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy as a mode of spiritual self-cultivation and self-transformation. In the remainder of the paper, I try to describe and think through what Foucault identifies as a “Cartesian moment,” in which self-knowledge becomes the ultimate precondition for the ethico-spiritual project of “caring for the self,” in Tang＇s approach of wisdom. In the course of my argument, I outline the complex relation between his vision of a renewed Confucian mode of religious practice on the one hand and his philosophical presuppositions conceming the transcendental status of subjectivity and the reflexivity of consciousness on the other.
