The Right to Doubt in Ancient Chinese Thought

Abstract

The late Professor Carl Becker of Cornell University once told me that he had on the door of his office this quotation from the Confucian Analects (论语): “Hui gives me no assistance. There is nothing that I say which does not please him.”

Editor’s note.—This paper was sent to this Journal for publication quite a long time ago, after having been read at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Far Eastern Association in 1954. Dr. Hu had hoped to elaborate and document the article. Despite the fact that this was never done, it has been decided to publish the paper because of the importance of the topic and because it represents a fundamental aspect of the late Dr. Hu’s thinking. Dr. Hu’s attitudes on this question are discussed somewhat fully as part of his article, “The Scientific Spirit and Method in Chinese Philosophy,” in Charles A. Moore, ed., Philosophy and Culture—East and West (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1962), pp. 199–222.

Chapter Note: Philosophy East and West. Jan., 1963. Vol. 12. No. 4. pp. 295–300.