Abstracts and Key Words

● Philosophy as a Cognitive Enterprise CHEN Bo

Abstract:Philosophy is a cognitive enterprise. In multiple senses, it is continuous with other sciences(including natural sciences, social sciences and Humanities). (1) As far as its subject-matter is concerned, like other sciences, philosophy is also a part of the overall efforts of human beings to understand the world in which we live. (2) In terms of their methodologies, there is no substantive difference between philosophy, common sense and science. Just as scientific methodology is the refinement of common sense methodology, philosophical methodology is also the refinement and summary of common sense and scientific methodologies. (3) In terms of their utilities,philosophy and science are both designed to help people live better in the world, and to lead a decent and dignified life, especially a meaningful and valuable life. (4) The correct attitude and practice of the relationship between philosophy and the history of philosophy is to study and enter philosophy through the history of philosophy, to critically reflect on the previous philosophical theories, to open up new fields, to use new methods and to put forward new theories to develop philosophy. (5) The following two assertions about philosophy and science are just taken for granted, and specious: science relies on observation and experiment, and philosophy resorts to interpretation and understanding, while science focuses on “what is” and philosophy focuses on “what should be” .

Key words:philosophy; science; cognitive enterprise; continuity; philosophical methodology; the history of philosophy

● How to Do Philosophy and Its Main Orientations ZHANG Nengwei

Abstract:Doing philosophy (Philosophieren) is a new way to view and research on philosophy in recent years.The introduction of the English classic works concerning philosophy leads to the further discussion over philosophical nature, significance and how to do philosophy. Different from the traditional philosophical research, doing philosophy is an innate meditation on the nature of the matter and the world based on thinking-method training, philosophical practice, conduct and activity which are directed by the matters, in order to present a process of philosophical thinking and argument. Although Socrates, Kant, Hegel and modern language-logic analytic philosophy have explored the subject of doing philosophy, a theoretical philosophical analysis gives way to making thoughts and theory and judging the conclusion significance. Doing philosophy and doing it well contains four orientations of human curiosity: practice and life itself, philosophical thinking and writing training, classical works’ comprehension, and interpretation.

Key words:doing philosophy; text reading and understanding; illustration on history of philosophy; main orientations

● Experimental Philosophy: An Embarrassing Concept FEI Duoyi

Abstract:This paper aims to question the “experimental philosophy” , which has become fashionable in recent years: (1) From the perspective of the extension of concept, there are problems of confusing categories and blurring boundaries. In a sense, it has become the word transformation of cognitive science or experimental psychology. Then, is experimental philosophy a philosophy or a science? (2) The status of experiment was established in logical empiricism a century ago, which is not a new topic for a long time. It is redundant to use experiment to limit or modify philosophy in term. (3) How can experiments draw normative conclusions from descriptive findings? The naturalization of methodology encounters the dilemma of “explanatory gap” : the most important characteristic of mind, consciousness, and experience is the subjectivity, which is not subject to the laws of cause and effect in the physical world, and the explanation of internal state and events cannot be successful only by resorting to the explanation of physical phenomena. (4) According to the idea of experimental philosophy, the judgment on the extent to which intuition is reliable still relies on intuition, thus falling into“begging the question” , but the experiment itself cannot solve this problem. The purpose of reflection on“experimental philosophy” is to understand what philosophy should do and how to do it.

Key words:experimental philosophy; intuition; naturalization; explanation; testing

● The Question of Being, from Husserl to Heidegger: Rethinking How the “Mirror-Image Relation”Is Possible MA Yinghui

Abstract:Focusing on the openness dimension of intentionality, Heidegger reinterprets the concept of Being,which means a fulfilling consistency in Logic Investigation, as a more primitive aletheia in order to gain the selfgiven Being which is missed in Husserl’s epistemology. But in his critique of Husserl, the concept of transcendental Absolute Being as the mirror-image of the construction of existentialism as well as the fundamental difference between the univocal highest Being and the Being constituted by the transcendent One that he established early on have been suppressed. In this sense, Heidegger’s “turn” of thought realized by reinterpreting “nothingness” is essentially a return to the univocity of the highest Being. The univocity of the Being provides him the basis for his critique of Nietzsche and the construction of the quartet domain, but this circular Being can still be understood in a mathematical form. As for the paradigm of thinking, phenomenology needs urgently new breakthroughs.

Key words:Being; givenness; transcendent one; nothingness; quartet domain; continuum.

● Korean Confucian Criticism of Huang Gan’s View of Renxin and Daoxin DENG Qingping

Abstract:In the discussion with his colleagues, Huang Gan interpreted the human heart (renxin) as feelings of joy, anger, sorrow and joy, and the heart of Dao (daoxin) as the human nature of Ren (benevolence), Yi (justice),Li (propriety) and Zhi (wisdom). Based on his own theory of human mind and the moral mind, Korean Confucianists represented by Quan Shangxia and Han Yuanzhen noticed the difference between Huang Gan’s view and Zhu Zi’s thought, especially Huang Gan’s view of Taoist mind as nature, and made a special article to criticize Huang Gan’s view in detail. These criticisms involve not only Huang Gan’s view itself, but also his specific demonstration process. These two articles not only fully demonstrate the complexity of the theory of the human mind and the moral mind, but also represent the highest research level of Korean Confucians on Huang Gan.

Key words:Huang Gan; renxin; daoxin; Korean Confucianism

● On the Root of the Rise of National Philosophy in Soviet Republics 〗ZU Chunming

Abstract:After the disintegration, the former Soviet republics need the reestablishment of both social and spiritual order. Judging from the current situation of these countries, the social order has basically stabilized, and the task of rebuilding the spiritual order is thus highlighted. In the process of constructing the national identity of these emerging nation-states, national philosophy emerges at the historic moment and becomes the strong power throughout the ideological circle of these nations. This paper attempts to explore the root of the rise of national philosophy, by placing it into the dimensions of history, reality, spirit and ideology. Through such exploration and analysis, we find that during the construction of the identity of these emerging nation-states, some opposite categories which we are familiar with presently as different forms: traditional versus modern, nationalism versus internationalism, particularism versus universalism, De-russification versus Westernization and so on. These Soviet republics have compact geopolitical relation with our country, as well as the historical and cultural origin,thus it is necessary for us to pay close attention to the trend of their domestic idealistic development.

Key words:national philosophy; the emerging nation-states; identity

● A Reconsideration of the Relation Between Morality and the Ethical Life Jürgen Habermas

Abstract:Kant differentiates in the concept of autonomy (freedom) the side of reason (Universality) from the side of will (Ought), and bases the unity of the two on the “ethical community” within the framework of his transcendental philosophy. With the concept “ethical life” Hegel brings the moral subject back to this world from the other world,understanding her in the process of Buildung of her life-history. In modern ethical life Hegel saw more coherence than conflict between the Objective Spirit as the crystallization of reasons and the Subjective Spirit that obeys the force of reasons, but Marx, though his critique of ideology, discloses the societal power and the political violence behind various “reasons” . In order to resist the oppression of these forces, economic basis should be created first of all for a true integration of the political community, and the same kind of economic crisis that will lead to the final collapse of the capitalist society will also release forces that will lead to a new form of societal integration. Marx, however, did not realize that even in a society freed from exploitation and oppression the private autonomy and the public autonomy must presuppose each other. This review of the complicated discussion from Kant through Hegel to Marx, in short, tells us that for a crisis-avoiding state-politics aimed to provide fully functioning condition for the capital, both the demand for legitimation under the condition of the post-metaphysical morality and the demand for societal integration under the condition of multi-culturalism should be met; and in our world, especially in today’s Europe, a political culture that meets both demands must be based on the historical experiences of the democratic struggle of the citizens in their creative efforts of addressing the problems that they all face.

Key words:morality; the ethical life; Kant; Hegel; Marx; economic globalization; the political culture; the European Union

● Human Nature and Autonomy: Jürgen Habermas’ Critique of Liberal Eugenics Daniel C. Henrich

Abstract:This essay examines whether Habermas’ approach to bioethics implies that the ethical challenges of eugenics cannot be answered within the scope of a deontological account, but only with reference to a concept of the good life or a normative anthropology. First, Habermas’ “argument against alien determination” is elaborated,based on an action-theoretical concept of “human nature” which is analyzed in part three. Habermas’ main objection against genetic engineering, namely that it entails a reification of human nature by undermining the consciousness of autonomy of the genetically manipulated person, is also discussed. Subsequently, his concept of human nature as a condition of possibility of our ethics self-understanding, which is expressed in the phrase “ethics of the species”, is introduced. It is argued that this term clearly indicates Habermas’ departure from the path of deontological ethics. Moreover, this essay asserts that two readings of the argument against alien determination are possible (a weak and a quasi-transcendental one) and that the expression “consciousness of autonomy” therefore remains ambiguous. The fourth part of the paper deals with the question whether or not the argument against alien determination is conditional on the assumption of genetic determinism. In part five, the author claims that in contrast to earlier conceptions, Habermas now implicitly raises the question “Why be moral?” and at the same time refuses to address it. The essay concludes with two different anthropological accounts that can be found in Habermas’ work and that might be helpful to correct the anthropological deficiency of his bioethical account.

Key words:anthropology; bioethics; PGD, genetic engineering Jürgen Habermas; discourse ethics

● How Is the Technical Justice Possible: A Investigation Based on Marx’s Critique of Capital Logic WANG Zhidong MA Chao

Abstract:The development of artificial intelligence has brought about a new round of questioning on technical justice issues. However, the research on technical justice lags behind the development of technology,and the understanding of technical justice is not consistent. It can be said that technical justice contains elements of general justice, but technical justice has characteristics different from general justice due to the particularity of technology. Marx’s research on the context of critical logic of capitalist private ownership or the critical context of capital logic is a positive construction of technical justice. In particular, although the issue of technological justice in contemporary China has developed in a positive direction under the guidance of Marxist theory of justice, it still cannot completely avoid the penetration and challenge of capital logic driven by the market economy. We explore the rationality of contemporary Chinese technical justice thoughts, and then establish a higher value for the purpose of resolving the problems of China’s technological development in the new era. In the context of Marxism, the capitalization of technology is the historical origin of technical injustice.Marx reveals the injustice of the private system through the phenomenon of the alienation of critical technology.At the same time, relying on technological practice and reforming private ownership to make technological justice the highest value realm of a technology can be seen in the real dimension.

Key words:technical justice; technical value; critique of capital logic

● Turing’s Three Philosophical Lessons and the Philosophy of Information Luciano Floridi

Abstract:In this article, I outline the three main philosophical lessons that we may learn from Turing’s work, and how they lead to a new philosophy of information. After a brief introduction, I discuss his work on the method of levels of abstraction (LoA), and his insistence that questions could be meaningfully asked only by specifying the correct LoA. I then look at his second lesson, about the sort of philosophical questions that seem to be most pressing today. Finally, I focus on the third lesson, concerning the new philosophical anthropology that owes so much to Turing’s work. I then show how the lessons are learned by the philosophy of information.In the conclusion, I draw a general synthesis of the points made, in view of the development of the philosophy of information itself as a continuation of Turing’s work.

Key words:fourth revolution; level of abstraction; philosophical anthropology; philosophy of information; Shannon

● “The Body’s Own Reasons” and “The Logical Space of Reasons”: On Robert Hanna’s Critique of McDowell’s Strong Conceptualism DUAN Lizhen, CHEN ChongRong

Abstract:Basing on the central debate over whether the content of perceptual experience is conceptual or not in contemporary analytic philosophy, especially arguing against McDowell’s strong conceptualism, Robert Hanna shows that there are perceptual states whose representational content cannot even in principle be conceptual, and he calls the content essentially non-conceptual content. According to Hanna, the autonomous non-conceptual content is inherently normative, it expresses “the body’s own reasons” ,and constitutes the substructure of Sellars’s “l(fā)ogical space of reasons” . At the meanwhile, contrary to McDowell’s strong conceptualist reading of Kant, Hanna argues for a kind of Kantian non-conceptualism. Although Hanna is right to show the true difficulties in Kant’s theory of intuition, he cannot resolve the problem of how intuitions relate to concepts, so he cannot deal with the challenge of conceptualism successfully, because of his overemphasizing the independence of Kant’s intuition.

Key words:essentially non-conceptual content; the logical space of reasons; proto-rationality; sensorimotor subjectivity; the body’s own reasons

● The Theoretical Horizon and Practical Purpose of Engineering Methods CHEN Fan FU Changmei

Abstract:Innovation is the first driving force in leading development, and engineering is an important carrier to realize innovation. Engineering philosophy is the growing point of comprehensive innovation of philosophy, and engineering methodology is an important research direction of engineering philosophy. As a core category, it is necessary to make a comprehensive analysis on the nature, characteristics and significance of engineering methods from the four dimensions of engineering ontology, engineering methodology, engineering knowledge theory and engineering value theory. This analysis will help us gain a clearer understanding of the theoretical horizon and practical purpose of engineering methods and therefore has important theoretical and practical significance.

Key words:innovation; engineering methods; engineering philosophy; theoretical horizon; practical purpose.