Lecture 15: Introduction of Western Philosophy Flashcards
Name three Jesuit fathers who have contributed to introducing western learning and Christianity to China and three Chinese scholars who have helped them in doing so.
- Matteo Ricci arrived in China in 1583. He and his Jesuit colleagues, such as Julius Aleni, Francisco Furdato, Franciscus Sambiasci, etc., with the assistance of some brilliant Chinese literati such as Xu Guanqi, Li Zhizao, Yang Tingyun, etc., introduced Western science, philosophy, and Christianity to China.
- From then on, China had to face the challenge of Western thoughts, to start the 4th phase of Chinese philosophy.
Who among western philosophers was the first to be introduced to China? Name some of Aristotle’s works translated into Chinese in 17th Century.
Coimbra College’s Commentaries of Aristotle’s De Categoriae (On Categories), De Caelo (On Heaven), De Anima (On the Soul) were translated or rewritten into Chinese together with Thomism.
Compare traditional Chinese science with Western modern science.
- Rational: Theories in logical/math language.
- China: Math for pragmatic use; no explicit logic.
- Empirical: Systematic experimentation.
- China: No systematic experiments; observations letting things be.
- Epistemological reflection: Theory, concepts, sensations and their relation with empirical data.
- China: No systematic epistemological checking between theories/empirical data.
What are Matteo Ricci’s contributions to the introduction of western science and technology in China?
- One of Ricci’s positive contributions to the development of science in China is to have translated and introduced Clavius’ version of Euclidean geometry, the Jihe yuanben. Contrary to Chinese pragmatic use of mathematics, Ricci considered geometry as fundamental to all sciences. However, Chinese intellectuals were attracted by the practical use rather than the theoretical and rational implications of mathematics.
- Ricci and colleagues brought to China new scientific instruments, new method of observation, method of induction and new techniques of calculation etc., that increased the exactitude of empirical data.
- Unfortunately, epistemology, essential to modern western science, was not well introduced, except some Aristotelian ideas such as the theory of abstraction and function of the intellect.
Explain Ricci’s moral philosophy and its relation to Chinese ethics of his time.
Concerning moral philosophy, M. Ricci’s writings were much admired by Chinese men of letters, even by those who didn’t sympathize with his religious faith. For example, On Friendship, Ten Chapters of an Uncommon Man, The Book of Twenty-five Sentences, and the Tianzhu Shiyi (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven) contained many moral lessons. Generally speaking, Ricci taught an ascetic and dualistic conception of morality: the world was only a temporary place for human beings as passengers to Heaven on high; to be natural was not to be virtuous; to be virtuous one must correct one’s evil doings and revert to good deeds; moral praxis consisted in the effort to eliminate one’s egoist desires and to achieve virtues.
Evaluate the Christian concept of God introduced to China by Matteo Ricci and its compatibility or incompatibility with traditional Chinese philosophy.
- Tianzhu Shiyi gave us a series of proofs of existence of God. Some of them have been borrowed from the Five Ways of St Thomas. These rational proofs were based upon the law of causality, the use of which in philosophy of religion meant the extension of a rational principle in physics to God the Ultimate Reality, and therefore manifested a rational Christian worldview.
- Ricci noticed another thesis of Chinese philosophers: man’s inner connection with nature, with other men and with Heaven, and experience with Ultimate Reality was to be obtained on through human mind. Here he touched on the inner dynamism of human existence, shown by Ricci’s first proof, a proof by human conscience, but not fully developed.
Why did Matteo Ricci misunderstand the Buddhist concept of emptiness and the Daoist concept of non-being? Explain with critique.
Under the influence of Aristotle’s concept of “substance,” Ricci retained an ontic view of being and nothingness, and didn’t understand Daoist “non-being” or Buddhist “emptiness.” Ricci used Aristotle’s theory of “substance” and “accident” to criticize them and Zhu Xi’s li. For Ricci, li was an accident, therefore not the real cause of all creatures. For Ricci, God was the first Being, the first Substance and the first Cause. This concept of God went well with the idea that God was a great Geometer and Horologist founding the world’s rationality and organization. But it lacked the warming encouragement in Chinese belief that “heaven is the final end of human heart looking for perfection,” a position cherished by all schools of Chinese philosophy.
What’s wrong with Fung’s account on the introduction of Western philosophy to China?
For Fung Yu-lan, the introduction of Western philosophy seems to begin only in 1919-1920 with the visit of John Dewey and Bertrand Russell to China. However, this is not accurate, since Western philosophy and learning was first introduced to China with the Jesuits in the late 16th century, especially in translating and introducing Aristotle, and in the areas of Logic, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion.
