Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series III, Asia, Volume, 17 Dialogue between Christian Philosophy and Chinese Culture: Philosophical Perspectives for the Third Millennium Edited by Paschal Ting, Marian Kao and Bernard Li The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2002 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dialogue between Christian Philosophy and Chinese Culture : Chinese Philosophical Studies, XVII / edited by Paschal Ting, Marian Gao and Bernard Li. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change . Series III. Asia, vol. 17) Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Christianity—Philosophy. 2. Philosophy, Chinese. 3. Philosophy, Comparative. I. Ting, Paschal. II. Gao, Marian. III. Li, Bernard. IV. Series. BR100.P48 2002 2002006650 109—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-173-5 (pbk.) Table of Contents Foreword v Paschal Ting Introduction 1 George F. McLean Part I. Philosophy and Culture 1. The Manifold Meanings of Experience and the Idea of Truth 11 Jean Greisch 2. Philosophy and Culture 31 Carlo Huber 3. Existential Rootedness of Culture and Worldwide Globalization: 39 Teleology and Restructuration Ghislaine Florival 4. Philosophy, Culture and the Future of Tradition 53 William Sweet Part II. Christian Philosophy and Chinese Culture 5. Wittgenstein on Religious Points of View: 73 Its Relevance for Interreligious Dialogue Kim-chinj Vu 6. Christian Thought and the Destiny of Philosophy 93 Jean Ladrière 7. Inculturation of the Christian Faith in Asia through Philosophy: 119 A Dialogue with John Paul II’s Fides Et Ratio Peter C. Phan 8. The Role of Christian Philosophy in the Present Transformation of Chinese Culture 153 George F. McLean Part III. Chinese Culture and Ethics 9. Worshipping the Divine in Spirit and in Truth 179 Françoise B. Todorovitch 10. "Human Dignity" in Retrospect and Prospect 194 Michel Renaud 11. The Philosophy of Life in Oriental Philosophy and Thomas Aquinas: 209 Immanence and Transcendence Eui-Chai Tjeng 12. Ethics and Life 233 Isabel (Carmelo Rosa) Renaud 13. Just War: Chinese and Western Perspectives 241 Edmund Ryden Acknowledgements Foreword Paschal Ting This volume presents the English language papers of the conference organized by the Department of Philosophy and the Institute of Scholastic Philosophy of Fu Jen Catholic University under the theme, "Philosophical Perspective for the Third Millennium: Dialogue Between Philosophy and Chinese Culture." As the spirit of a university depends on the philosophy it upholds, Fu Jen Catholic University has explored Christian philosophy and commissioned the Institute of Scholastic Philosophy as a university research center. This volume is focused on the mission of Christian philosophy and its significance in the contemporary world. Fu Jen originally was established in China with the goal of forming an "academic community of students and teachers closely associated in fostering the growth of the person on the basis of Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Holiness." It is "committed to academic research and the promotion of genuine knowledge for the development of society and the advancement of humankind." As the only university to teach Christian philosophy in the Chinese cultural context, it aims "to foster dialogue leading to the integration of Christianity and Chinese culture." As the science of speculative and practical reason philosophy constitutes a special bridge between the two. A university’s mission lies in the development of a common love of learning in its students through research, educational and professional training,1 and more broadly in the search for truth and wisdom.2 As a university, it "is an academic community which, in a rigorous and critical fashion," and through research, teaching, and other services, assists in the promotion of human dignity and the preservation of the cultural heritage.3 In this mission of transmitting and applying the culture, universities have an important role to play with regards to the dialogue and integration of faith, reason, and cultures. Over several hundred years of service, Christianity has gradually evolved long-standing presence on Chinese culture. Matteo Ricci, who first introduced Western science and technology, together with works on morality and on the Transcendent, did much to launch the progress of modernization in China. Others came to China with the purpose of bearing witness and spreading belief in a personal God. They have certainly paved the way for the encounter of Western and Eastern civilizations. Today, as we enter the Third Millennium, we search for a new syntheses of Christianity and Chinese culture. This conference is a contribution to this process. Its proceedings are divided into two sections. The Center for the Study of Cultures and Values of the Catholic University of America is here publishing the papers presented in English in its series: "Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change" which is distributed to 350 libraries across the world. The complete text of over 100 volumes in this series can be found on the web at www.crvp.org as well as being available through the usual book distribution channel. The Department of Philosophy and the Institute of Scholastic Philosophy of Fu Jen Catholic University is publishing the papers presented in Chinese. Chair, Department of Philosophy Director, Institute of Scholastic Philosophy Fu Jen Catholic University Taipei, Taiwan Notes 1. John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, p. 9. 2. Ibid., p. 10 3. Ibid., p. 12 Introduction George F. McLean This work on Chinese Culture and Christian Philosophy comes at a most opportune time. For this is a point at which the massive effort at modernization which has fascinated China for the last two centuries is being relaunched on broader and deeper foundations. After long disputes over what was form and what substance in 1919 a more radical approach was launched, that is, to remove Confucius and his legacy and to substitute it by Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy. It was not incidental that John Dewey and Bertrand Russell were present at the time; nor is it incidental that under this formula the promise of Marx to provide a scientific approach to transforming the history of China captivated much of the intellectual class. Gradually, however, there has reemerged positive interest in dimensions of meaning and motivation much deeper than the level at which science works and also much more engaged in enabling and attracting the exercise of human freedom. How can these levels be accessed? One of the key concerns of the Taiwanese has been to retain and develop the resources of classical Chinese culture. The work of Fu Jen University in Taipei has been integral to that search and hence brings an unbroken tradition of scholarship to the task of mining the classical Chinese heritage for context that can serve in our day and to adapting and transforming it to that end. But this is not merely a matter of recuperating the foundations of Chinese culture. If the task includes inviting in Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy, of which the term "Mr" denotes their Western origin, then there is a certain symmetry. Just as it is necessary to repossess anew the Chinese foundations, it is necessary to integrate as well the foundations of Western culture. This means going back before the Enlightenment to rediscover and rearticulate the sense of democracy elaborated by the Greeks and the sense of person in which this was embedded in the Christian philosophies of the Middle Ages. This is the unique significance of Fu Jen University as dedicated not only to the ancient heritage of China, but to relating this to the classical heritage of Christian philosophy. In this combination it is truly unique in our day; the papers of this conference on Chinese Culture and Christian Philosophy reflect this uniqueness. This volume is organized in three parts: Part I "Philosophy and Culture," Part II "Christian Philosophy and Chinese Culture" and Part III "Chinese Culture and Ethics.” Part I "Philosophy and Cultures" takes up the more theoretical questions relating to the general enterprise of the nature and role of culture and of philosophy therein. Chapter I by Jean Greisch, "The Manifold Meanings of Experience and the Idea of Truth," takes up the issue along closely but convergent pathways. "Both Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger have endeavored to develop a genealogical understanding of the historical unfolding of the idea of truth, from the beginning to the end of Western philosophy. In order to make possible an intercultural dialogue on a philosophical level, their understanding should not only be confronted with the concepts of truth developed by other cultural and spiritual traditions; we need as well to reflect upon the manifold meanings of the word "experience" itself. The object of this first chapter is to propose a genealogical understanding of this word, in critical discussion of some contemporary issues in hermeneutics, metaphysics and philosophy of religion." In this the tool used is an analysis of the notion of experience which he evolves from Wittgenstein’s early picturing to recognize not only an external given, but the inner world of the mental states of the psychic life and even the possibility of omitting the notion of an underlying ego. This paper counters the notion that Mr. Science could ever free us from culture or deal without it. The contribution of the heritage of Christian philosophy may be to ground the ego metaphysically in such wise that it is not closed, but a window, and not only on the externally experienced physical universe but on being itself at all its levels. Chapter II by Carlo Huber, "Philosophy and Culture," is a Wittgensteinian approach, "looking into how the two terms ‘culture’ and ‘philosophy’ are used. The term ‘culture’ is used as a plural noun: there are multiple cultures whose differences are strongly underscored in a global society.