Event Date
Presented by Prof. Chunjie Zhang
The Chinese philosopher Feng Youlan (aka Fung Yu-lan, 1895-1990) endeavored to connect the Chinese and European philosophical traditions through metaphysics. Feng argued that, while Kant saw no way of crossing the boundary between the known and the unknown through logical analysis, Taoism and Zen Buddhism abolish the boundary through silence and the negation of reason. This negative method, Feng argued, points toward a mystic metaphysics, which Chinese philosophy could contribute to a world philosophical union beyond national, cultural, linguistic, or racial boundaries. According to Feng, philosophy should not only serve to legitimize the positive accumulation of knowledge in the modern sciences. Philosophy should also move past the limits of logic and recognize experiences that cannot be expressed through language. What cannot be expressed is a mystic experience that construes a universal cosmic union of all humans. Feng referred to Wittgenstein as a companion on the path to achieving negation through poetic silence. Feng’s proposition to move from logic to mysticism, from a positive to a negative method, resembles Max Weber’s pursuit of a rational culture that incorporates irrational drives.
