EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an introduction to a long series of postings by the author discussing the philosophical mind/matter issue in semipopular language. This long series is actually a combined and restructured translation by the author himself of his two earlier essays (2006, 2007) formerly written in Chinese on the same subject. As the language is not very formal on the whole, those readers who are not used to formal philosophy should not be scared away by a few unavoidable special terms. And what is more important, this discussion provides a epistemological basis for a correct comprehension of the author’s and more extensively of the New Legalist’s discussions on political, economic and cultural matters.
Major Idea
All the problems confronting the mankind today, philosophically and finally speaking, have their origin in a mind-matter split worldview. To successfully tackle the problems, it is imperative to go back to the Eastern MindMatter-as-one philosophy. As the mind-matter dichotomy, together with the resulting materialism-vs.-idealism polemic, has originated in the West, a sound understanding of its faulty nature and harmfulness is possible only if it is viewed in the Eastern philosophical perspective.
1-0 MindMatter-as-One: Ontology & Epistemology
1-1 Relative selfhood of human individuals, groups and all beings
1-2 MindMatter-as-One ontology：Negation of ego-centrism of human individuals, groups, nations and species
1-3 MindMatter-as-One epistemology: Metaphysical basis for social theories
2-0 From “Transcendental Chaos” to Mind-Matter Split
2-1 A thought experiment
2-2 The indescribable “Transcendental Chaos”
2-3 Coming about of the “Human-Perceived World”
2-4 Coming about of the mind-matter split
2-5 Intangibility of the “Human-Perceived World”
2-6 Limitedness of Human Knowledge
3-0 Return to Eastern Philosophy: Negation of philosophical realism (实在论) and its extensions in various fields of academic thought
3-1 Philosophical categories -- space, time, & causality:
From substantialism (real existence) to relativism (relative perception)
3-2 Philosophical theory of knowledge (1):
From materialism-idealism divide to mind-matter interaction
3-3 Philosophical theory of knowledge (2):
From scientism to deconstructionism
3-4 Philosophical methodology (1):
From formal logic to fuzzy logic –
From the classic to a new “law of non-contradiction”
3-5 Philosophical methodology (2):
From self-contained substances to dynamic relatedness
as focus of attention
3-6 Theoretical physics:
From elementary particle to wave-particle duality
3-7 Social ethics:
From atomism-monolithism
to theory of interaction on and across multiple levels
3-8 Political economy:
From capitalist-imperialist hegemoniceconomics
to overall balance-oriented world political economy
3-9 Medical science and self-help health preserving:
From piecemeal treatment to mind-body wholeness
4-0 Transcend Mind-Matter Divide to Reach Realm of Happiness
Head Poem
A Poem being Not a Poem
Mountains are not high
They are, as seen by rivers
Rivers not flowing
They are, as seen by trees
Trees not green
They are, as seen by birds
Birds not singing
They are, as seen by humans
Humans not earthly
They are, as seen by gods
Gods not heavenly
They are, as seen by you and me
Mountains are not mountains, but seen so
Rivers are not rivers, but seen so
Trees are not trees, but seen so
Birds are not birds, but seen so
Humans are not humans, but seen so
Gods are not gods, but seen so
What sees ‘n sees what
Which is mind ‘n which matter
Matter is mind ‘n vice versa
They’re one and the same
Formless and nameless
Call it Dao, for the sake of naming
(Original in Chinese, April 2003,
English translation by the author, June 1, 2011)
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