Abstract
As regards the how-to-live concern in his practical philosophy of subjectality, Li Zehou takes the full-fledged development of human capacity as an alternative to address the issue. Being the most crucial determinant of human nature, human capacity is based on the cultural-psychological formation comprising such three dimensions as the cognitive, moral, and aesthetic. The escalation of human capacity lies in an aesthetic engagement in the acts of illuminating the true, furnishing the good, and making life worth living through the beautiful. Such engagement becomes fourfold when it comes to creating the beautiful according to the proper measure. It is at this stage that the whole becoming of human as human will be attainable in light of human subjectality as the acme of human capacity and the ultimate outcome of human fulfillment.
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Notes
- 1.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (trans. C. K. Ogden, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003), p. 151. The statement follows: “It is clear that ethics cannot be expressed. Ethics is transcendental. Ethics and aesthetics are one” (6.421).
- 2.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Notebooks (883, October 7, 1916).
- 3.
This special concept in Chinese is zhu ti xing (主体性), which is coined by Li Zehou and distinguished from subjectivity as zhu guan xing (主观性) in certain cases.
- 4.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects, 11:12, in The Four Books (trans. James Legge, Changsha: Hunan Press, 1995).
- 5.
The old saying in Chinese is ren sheng yi shi, cao mu yi qiu (人生一世, 草木一秋).
- 6.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects, 4:8.
- 7.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects, 15:6.
- 8.
Confucius, The Confucian Analects, 6:11.
- 9.
It is expressed in Chinese as Kong Yan le chu (孔颜乐处), which is recommended as a lifestyle according to the classical Confucian ideal.
- 10.
Xunzi, Discourse on Music, in The Xunzi (trans. John Knoblock), Vol. 2, pp. 648–649.
- 11.
The Chinese notion of yue as music and that of le as joy are distinct in pronunciation but share the same Chinese character (樂/乐).
- 12.
Chen Guangzhong (ed.), Huainanzi [The Book of Huannanzi] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2013), vol. 1, p.387.
- 13.
Li Zehou, “Of Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” (trans. Liu Jian), in Wang Keping (ed.), International Yearbook of Aesthetics: Diversity and Universality in Aesthetics, Vol. 14, 2010, p. 4.
- 14.
I. Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (trans. Robert Louden, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 90–92.
- 15.
I. Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, p. 93.
- 16.
I. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (trans. Mary Gregor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 29.
- 17.
I. Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. (ed. Mary Gregor, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 422.
- 18.
I. Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, p. 93.
- 19.
I. Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, p. 93.
- 20.
I. Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, p. 92.
- 21.
Li Zehou, Shi yong li xing yu le gan wen hua [Pragmatic Reason and a Culture of Optimism] (Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 2005), p. 108.
- 22.
These three concepts are termed in Chinese as zi you zhi guan (自由直观), zi you yi zhi (自由意志) and zi you xiang shou (自由享受).
- 23.
Li Zehou, “Kangde zhe xue yu jian li zhu ti xing lun gang” [Kant’s Philosophy and an outline of constructing a philosophy of subjectality], in Pi pan zhe xue de pi pan [Critique of the Critical Philosophy: A Commentary on Kant] (Beijing: Renmin Press, rep. 1984), pp. 425–426.
- 24.
I. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, p. 26.
- 25.
This term in Chinese is li xing ning ju (理性凝聚).
- 26.
According to Kant, “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence, the more often and more steadily one reflects on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not need to search for them and merely conjecture them as though they were veiled in obscurity or in the transcendent region beyond my horizon; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence.” Cf. I. Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, p. 129.
- 27.
Li Zehou, “Kangde zhe xue yu jian li zhu ti xing lun gang” [Kant’s Philosophy and an outline of constructing a philosophy of subjectality], in Pi pan zhe xue de pi pan [Critique of the Critical Philosophy: A Commentary on Kant], pp. 434–435.
- 28.
Li Zehou, “Human nature and aesthetic metaphysics”, in Wang Keping (ed.), International Yearbook of Aesthetics: Diversity and Universality in Aesthetics, vol. 14/2010, p. 5.
- 29.
Li Zehou, “Kangde zhe xue yu jian li zhu ti xing lun gang” [Kant’s Philosophy and an outline of constructing a philosophy of subjectality], in Pi pan zhe xue de pi pan [Critique of the Critical Philosophy: A Commentary on Kant], p. 436. The Chinese expressions for “rational melting” and “aesthetic sedimentation” are respectively li xing rong hua (理性融化) and shen mei ji dian (审美积淀).
- 30.
S. Rošker, “Li Zehou’s notion of subjectality as a new conception of human self”, in Philosophy Campus, 2018:13, wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/phc3, p. 1.
- 31.
S. Rošker, “Li Zehou’s notion of subjectality as a new conception of human self”, pp. 3–4. Also see Li Zehou, 1986. “The philosophy of Kant and a theory of subjectivity.” In Analecta Husserliana—The yearbook of phenomenological Research 21, The phenomenology of man and of the human condition, II: The meeting point between occidental and oriental philosophies (edited Anna‐Teresa Tymieniecka, Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster, Tokyo: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1986), p. 136, and Li Zehou, Mei xue si jiang[Four Lectures on Aesthetics] (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chuban she, 2001, rep.), p. 43.
- 32.
Li, Zehou, “Guanyu zhutixingde buchong shuoming” [A supplementary explanation of subjectality], in The Journal of the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1985/1, p. 21.
- 33.
Li Zehou, Guan yu “mei yu dai zong jiao” de za tan da wen [An Interview: A Rambling Talk about “Aesthetic Education Replacing Religion],” in Liu Zaifu, Li Zehou mei xue gai lun [An Introduction to Li Zehou’s Aesthetics] (Beijing: Sanlian Bookshop, 2009), pp. 218–219.
- 34.
Li uses the term as shen mei chao yue (审美超越) because he rejects the term of inward transcendence (nei zai chao yue内在超越).
- 35.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 8.
- 36.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 8.
- 37.
According to Cassirer, “we must analyze the forms of human culture in order to discover the true character of space and time in our human world…There are fundamentally different types of spatial and temporal experience. Not all the forms of this experience are on the same level. There are lower and higher strata arranged in a certain order” (Ernest Cassirer, An Essay on Man, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1944, rep. 1975, p. 42). According to Bruno, man’s self-liberation leads to what follows. That is, “Man no longer lives in the world as a prisoner enclosed within the narrow walls of a finite physical universe. He can traverse the air and break through all the imaginary boundaries of the celestial spheres which have been erected by a false metaphysics and cosmology. The infinite universe sets no limits to human reason; on the contrary, it is the great incentive of human reason. The human intellect becomes aware of its own infinity through measuring its power by the infinite universe” (Ibid., p. 15).
- 38.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” pp. 10–11. Also see Liu Zaifu, Li Zehou mei xue gai lun [An Introduction to Li Zehou’s Aesthetics], p. 230.
- 39.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 13. Also see Liu Zaifu, Li Zehou mei xue gai lun [An Introduction to Li Zehou’s Aesthetics], pp. 218, 228–229.
- 40.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 7.
- 41.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 7.
- 42.
It is termed in Chinese as ren yu yu zhou gong zai (人与宇宙共在).
- 43.
Liu Zaifu, Li Zehou mei xue gai lun [An Introduction to Li Zehou’s Aesthetics], p. 222.
- 44.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 7.
- 45.
This notion of tian di jing jie (天地境界) can be traced back to Xin yuan ren [The New Original Men] by Fung Yu-lan (Feng Youlan 1895–1990) in 1947. It is mainly concerned with the approach to freedom, moral transcendence, and self-awaking possibility. As regards moral transcendence, Fung examines into four realms of human achievement as follows: the natural realm that is characterized with simplicity based on naturalness, the utilitarian realm that is characterized with self-interestedness based on sociality, the moral realm that is characterized with righteousness guided by moral substance, and the Heaven–Earth realm that is characterized with serving Heaven–Earth in pursuit of moral transcendence. Cf. Fung Yu-lan (Feng Youlan) 冯友兰, Ji gao ming er dao zhong yong 极高明而道中庸 [Reach the greatest height and brilliancy and follows the path of the mean] (Beijing: China Guanbo Dianshi Press, 1995), p. 367–434.
- 46.
Li Zehou, “tian di jing jie” [About the Heaven-Earth realm], in Liu Zaifu, Li Zehou mei xue gai lun [An Introduction to Li Zehou’s Aesthetics], pp. 228–230.
- 47.
Zhuangzi, Discussion on Making All Things Equal, in The Complete Works of Zhuangzi (trans. Burton Watson, New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), p. 71.
- 48.
It is termed as qi qing zheng (七情正) in Chinese.
- 49.
It is termed as tian ren le (天人乐) in Chinese.
- 50.
Li Zehou, “Human Nature and Aesthetic Metaphysics,” p. 7.
- 51.
This mode of division is proposed by Li Zehou. The three types of the beautiful are, respectively, termed in Chinese as yue er yue mu (悦耳悦目), yue xin yue yi (悦心悦意), and yue zhi yue shen (悦志悦神).
- 52.
The poem is titled In Search of the Fragrance Temple (过香积寺). Its original versions follows: “不知香积寺, 数里入云峰。 古木无人径, 深山何处钟? 泉声咽危石, 日色冷青松。 薄暮空潭曲, 安禅制毒龙.”.
- 53.
Li Zehou, Shi yong li xing yu le gan wen hua [Pragmatic Reason and a Culture of Optimism], p. 108; Li Zehou, Lishi benti lun [Historical Ontology], p. 10. Li Zehou keeps this book of his in a very important position. He sometimes substitutes the book title with Ren lei xue ben ti lun [Anthropological Ontology], and sometimes with Ren lei xue li shi ben ti lun [Anthropological and Historical Ontology].
- 54.
Li Zehou, Li shi ben ti lun [Historical Ontology] (Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 2002), p. 13.
- 55.
Wang Keping Wang, Chinese Culture of Intelligence (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), pp. 195–196.
- 56.
Li Zehou, Shi yong li xing yu le gan wen hua [Pragmatic Reason and a Culture of Optimism], p. 42.
- 57.
Wang Keping, “Li Zehou’s View of Pragmatic Reason,” in Roger T. Ames and Jinghua Jia (ed.s), Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018), pp. 240–247.
- 58.
Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi (trans. Burton Watson), Ch. 3, pp. 82–84.
- 59.
Wang Keping, “Li Zehou’s View of Pragmatic reason,” in Roger Ames and Jia Jinhua (ed.s), Li Zehou and Confucian Philosophy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2018), pp. 225–237.
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Wang, K. (2021). How-to-Live Concern and Fourfold Engagement. In: Beauty and Human Existence in Chinese Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1714-0_12
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