Meng Peiyuan
Mr. Meng Peiyuan is a famous philosopher in China and a historian of Chinese philosophy, and a scholar of the previous generation whom I respect. His senior disciple, Professor Huang Yushun, and the team he led did a remarkable thing, that is, they edited and published the complete works of Mr. Meng, and planned to hold a conference to edit the proceedings of the conference.
Speaking of Mr. Meng, I naturally think of a past event from 16 years ago. From May 24 to June 25, 2005, in the name of the Research Center for Traditional Chinese Culture and the School of Philosophy of Wuhan University, I invited Mr. Meng to give a lecture at Luojia Mountain. We discussed it in advance and announced the arrangements for the lectures at our school. According to the plan, Mr. Meng gave ten lectures to our teachers and doctoral and master students, each of which was two hours or two and a half hours (including discussion).
I found the arrangements for that year in the old computer documentation, see below:
The undergraduates knew about it and asked to listen to Mr. Meng's speech, and I had to ask Mr. Meng to add a special lecture to the undergraduates outside the plan. It was arranged so fullly, Mr. Meng was very hard, I was very uneasy, but he was very happy. The themes of Mr. Meng's lectures at Wuhan University this time are three categories: Confucius's Renxue; the Ecological View of Chinese Philosophy; and the Theory of Mentality and Philosophy of Mind. We invited Mr. Meng's wife, Teacher Guo, to come to Han with us, she is a psychologist, and it just so happens that our Philosophy Institute has a psychology department, so we also invited Teacher Guo to give a speech. Teacher Guo spoke very vividly.
Mr. Meng has been engaged in scientific research in the Academy of Social Sciences for a long time, rarely lecturing, and there are really not many speech skills. Mr. Meng's lecture focuses on the content, which is his own scientific research results, and is a new insight that has really been seen and gained.
After 2005, I took advantage of my business trip to Beijing, holding meetings, compiling teaching materials, and other opportunities to visit Mr. Meng's house, visit him, and ask him for help and advice. I have been to two residences in his dormitory at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and in his later years in Huilongguan. The original dormitory of their family was very small, but it was slowly improved. Professor Ding Weixiang went to Mr. Meng's house to be more diligent.
Mr. Meng's writings have now been translated into many languages and have had a great influence on the international academic community. I have read his books "The Evolution of Science" (1984), "The Category System of Science" (1989), "Chinese Theory of Mentality" (1990), "Chinese Philosophical Subject Thinking" (1993), "Spiritual Realm and Transcendence" (1998), "Emotion and Reason" (2002), "Man and Nature - Chinese Philosophical Ecological View" (2004), etc., which have been deeply taught and enlightened me a lot. Mr. Meng's writings are not many, but they should be basic and representative. In the field of Chinese philosophical historiography, Mr. Meng was one of the earliest experts in the ecological philosophy and philosophy of mind of Chinese philosophy, and in these fields he traveled to enlighten the mountains and forests.
In terms of ecological philosophy, Mr. Meng absorbs nutrition from Confucianism, Taoism, metaphysics, and science, reinterprets the "unity of heaven and man", "life" and "benevolence", explains the difference and universality of "benevolence", the religious problems in ecological philosophy, the problems of scientific rationality and emotional rationality, the problems of particularism and universalism, and overcomes the duality between industrial culture and pre-industrial culture. He distinguished between Confucianism's "human-centered" and "anthropocentrism," "the establishment of a mind for heaven and earth," and "the legislature of nature."
Mr. Meng pointed out that the discussion of Chinese philosophy on the relationship between heaven and man, "when looking at heaven and man", fundamentally involves a deep ecological philosophy, and what is to be solved is the relationship between man and nature. Mr. Meng's contribution lies in: First, affirming that "heaven" is the general term of the natural world, and at the same time has the meaning of transcendence, transcending the heavenly way, heavenly virtue and natural heaven, "metaphysical" and "metaphysical" are not two worlds divided, but one world. Second, as far as the relationship between man and heaven is concerned, man is not the master above nature, but man has culture, and man is the subject, not only the intellectual subject, but also the moral subject. The intellectual subject shows man's conquest and control of nature, and gradually develops a "man"-centered idea. However, man has inner virtue and sacredness, and the subject of virtue aims at the harmonious unity of man and nature, affirms that man and heaven and earth are in harmony with their virtue, and that the relationship between man and nature is internal, not external, valuable rather than cognitive, and one-dimensional rather than dual. In particular, he pointed out the religious view in the deep ecological philosophy, pointed out the transcendent aspect of heaven, and man's reverence and gratitude for nature. Third, Mr. Meng especially put forward the philosophy of "life" that is "endlessly born", pointing out that "life" is the core and spirit of Chinese philosophy, and in a certain sense, Chinese philosophy is the philosophy of "life". He stressed that Chinese philosophy is talking about "generative theory" rather than the "ontology" of Western philosophy; it is life theory rather than mechanistic; it is ecological philosophy, which is the philosophy of unifying man and nature in the sense of life. He affirmed the meaning of life and the creation of life, but pointed out that man is not the "legislator" of nature, but the achiever and executor of the intrinsic values of nature. Mr. Meng reminded us that when we talk about ecological philosophy, it is not only a question of maintaining and improving the ecological environment, but also a problem of human beings' way of living and the value of life. Human beings' ethical obligations and responsibilities to the natural world are based on man's intrinsic emotional needs and become the fundamental purpose of life.
Mr. Meng's thinking on ecological philosophy is comprehensive and profound, which has positive practical significance, theoretical and forward-looking for solving today's ecological problems and promoting the sustainable development of China and the world.
In the philosophy of the mind, Mr. Meng's contribution lies in the "philosophy of emotion" and the establishment of its school. Mr. Meng believes that Chinese philosophy, especially Confucian philosophy, is the "philosophy of emotion"; It is the starting point of Confucian theory, "Confucianism has always thought about the problem of life from the perspective of emotion, the problem of 'existence', and thus established the world of human meaning and value." Based on this, Mr. Meng put forward the important proposition that "man is the existence of emotions". Therefore, some people in the academic circles call Mr. Meng's ideological scholarship "emotional Confucianism."
Mr. Meng believes that the failure to recognize moral emotions can be both rational (rational and sexual) and empirical and practical, and that moral emotions ("lust" is another problem) are either limited to the level of experience and reality, or become transcendent essences, which in itself does not break through the boundaries of Kant's philosophy (that is, the dual opposition between phenomenon and ontology, experience and transcendence). Only by acknowledging that moral emotions are both personal, common, common, special and universal, both empirical and transcendent, can we get out of the limitations of Kant's philosophy and return to the idea of "concrete reason" so that moral problems can be solved. He believes that "emotional rationality" is a kind of value rationality, because value is determined by emotional needs.
Mr. Meng pointed out that the characteristics of Confucian philosophy, as Mr. Mou Zongsan said, are that reason and emotion, that is, moral reason and moral emotion (not "lust") are "blended" together, and therefore "alive". It has no metaphysical purity, but it has the richness of the creation of life. Although we can "digest" Kant, "analyze" Confucian philosophy, and draw wisdom from Kant's philosophy, after "analysis", we still have to return to the spirit of Confucian philosophy and solve the problem of moral practice from the psychological basis. Confucianism advocates the elevation of emotions, but ascension itself is practice, and its purpose is to achieve a moral realm and improve human sentiment, rather than to establish a set of "transcendent metaphysics" or moral entities. On this issue, the Confucian doctrine of moral emotion is truly vital.
Mr. Meng very profoundly answered the question of moral disorder and ecological crisis raised by reality, and put forward the idea of how to mobilize the creative transformation of Chinese philosophy, especially The resources of Confucianism.
In terms of the research methodology of the history of Chinese philosophy, Mr. Meng's contribution is to deeply cultivate the classics, focus on the vitality of Chinese culture and philosophy, and still have meaning or can be transformed into values that are still meaningful or can be transformed, and create a new system. As mentioned earlier, Mr. Meng's "philosophy of emotion" is a highly creative philosophical system.
The school founded by Mr. Meng has been recreated by Professor Huang Yushun's theory and has reached a certain scale, which is a very gratifying thing. In the modern era, there are not many academic schools that originate from within Chinese culture and can dialogue with the philosophical circles of the contemporary world, and we are happy to see that the school of "emotional philosophy" has developed even more! However, the characters who inherited the past and the future after Professor Huang Yushun, I am lonely and unheard of, and I still don't know.
To form a school, one must have theoretical achievements, the second must have leaders, and the third must have a heritage team. To form a tradition, there must be at least three generations.
The revitalization of Chinese philosophy is pinned on the new generation. China's modern philosophical circles are not yet active enough, far from the atmosphere and weather of the pre-Qin dynasty and the hundred schools of thought. Fundamentally, we still have to encourage philosophers to establish their own theories and create schools, and encourage young scholars to correct their mentality, accumulate thick and thin hair, and have the courage to "investigate the time of heaven and man, distinguish between ancient and modern, and become a family's words." Mr. Meng Peiyuan has set an example for us! We have learned a lot from Mr. Meng's academic thought.
Author: Guo Qiyong is a professor at the School of Philosophy and the College of Chinese Studies at Wuhan University