On ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’ And What Today’s Philosophy has Lost

LIU Lihua, People’s Republic of China

Abstract: As a reference frame for reflection on the past and future of philosophy, this paper offers a ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’ category. Philosophy is defined as “A study of seeking or displaying Tao by a reasonable way ”. Though Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy are very different and highly supplementary in expression, structure, elements and building way, as the studies of seeking or displaying Tao, both possess inherently unified ontology, axiology and epistemology, that is ‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’. These three legs mutually support and its structure of three legs is not from philosophers’ designing subjectively but decided by the essential needs of human life or human being nature. The‘Iron triangle of Philosophy’ functions as the nuclear core or the soul of human spirit culture. Since the later half of 19^th century, the main stream of Western philosophy has lost the most of the three legs, therefore could not enter the core or soul level of the culture and has been fringed in the culture. Also Chinese philosophy, since 1840, has slowly lost its broadly comprehensive ontology, its axiology with the universal ethics held by the ontology, and its epistemology or methodology of knowing that pursue harmony and suitability. It is not enough only to simply recover the old format for “regaining” what philosophy lost, we need to engage very difficultly rebuilding work for this.  

The Misleading Value Standpoint of Marxism

LIU Lihua, People’s Republic of China

Abstract: Marxist value standpoint taking the value of working classes as more important and higher than universal human value has already been proved wrong by the anti-human practice led by the standpoint in the 20^th century. Though the disastrous historical reality was definitely beyond or not the expectation of Marxism founders, the practice is logically necessary result of the unavoidable historical limitation and theory mistake of Marxism. In their early years, both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels held the criterion of the universal human value such as freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity. However, decided or required by the space-time concrete circumstance, they had to concretize the ideal of ‘human liberation’ into the aim of ‘the liberation of proletariat’. According to such the three principles: social existence decides social consciousness, there is no common human nature in a society in which there are different classes, and productive forces is the final motive power and cause of social development, historical materialism demonstrates the supreme position of the value of working classes. These arguments are not persuasive in theory. Marxism itself has to take the universal human value as moral criterion against capitalism. Historical materialism has the problem of inherent reductionism in its epistemic methodology. Also, Marxism commits the obvious simple or lower grade mistake to negate generality with specialty in expounding no common human nature existing in a class society. And The Marxism founders were extremely arrogant psychologically when building their theory system. These are epistemology and psychology factors to form the prejudiced value standpoint. This reflection on the mistake of Marxist value standpoint expects to reach such a common consensus: to accept consciously and further improve and perfect the universal human value that marks maturity level of today’s human spirit and take the value as the bottom value of being human.

Our Incomparable And Valuable Heritage（digest）

Paper for Pre- meeting of WCP 2008  “Philosophy　Emerging from Culture”

By LIU Lihua  People’s University of China, Beijing

It is very encouraging and inspiring that this pre-meeting of WCP 2008 shows the consciousness that philosophy should truly face true human life. The theme of general sessions in the three Mornings and nine subthemes its designer offers in the Draft Program show us a systematical and dialectical view angle. The topic of this paper belongs to the theme of third session，from an angle of the closer and closer Global Interaction of Cultures and Civilizations and with the attention of human global existence and need, to discuss and make an inventory of the heritage of Chinese and western philosophies.

The paper’s leading idea is that both Western philosophy and Chinese philosophy are of knowledge seeking Tao in a rational way while each has its characteristics of rational style.

In a certain degree, Tao is law or the essential, necessary and stable relation of objects. The Tao philosophy seeks involves with the most fundamental law of human existence and the essence behind the various phenomena shown the fundamental questions of human existence. 

The fundamental questions of human existence can be induced and divided three kinds of relations that are the introversive relation of a person or humankind with self, the extrovertive relation of a person or humankind with natural and social environments, and the relation of between humans and among humankind.

In its long development, philosophy has formed the most fundamental paradigm or basic pattern that deals with the three kinds of relations from the viewpoints of ontology, epistemology and axiology. 

Both traditional Chinese philosophy and pre-present Western philosophy included very plentiful contents of using the paradigm to think and resolve the three kinds of relations. So, seeking Tao in a rational way is the common essential nature of Chinese and Western philosophies. Philosophy as a beautiful flower of human reason, its special beauty can be described as below:

Philosophy is a product human transcend reasonably their own limitation, is a confirmation of human’s subjectivity. Therefore it embodies the upward rational pursuit that human are not content with the animal level. It tries to set up a light tower for human whole thought to be referred to, and makes it possible that even without the help and spirit support by a person God, only relying on their own reason, human can continuously derive experience and lessons from human history and practice, continuously deepen their knowledge of the deeper essence and more general law of various objects and relations, thus increase efficiency of practice and keep the certain destination with truth and virtue in human life to open infinitely to infinite ultimate reality. In its expressive   style, philosophy always use as possible as abstractive, general and universal conceptions or images, such as ,, etc.. Though philosophy has its branches, it is only human knowledge with reason to face infinite ultimate reality, to face meaning of existence and reflect human capability of reason cognition. And the result of such facing and reflecting is philosophy composed of ontology, axiology, and epistemology. 

   As listed in below table, Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy have their specials in style or form.

Because of the above sameness and difference, Western and Chinese philosophies formed their respective but mutually complementary theory emphasis and approaches and left us incomparable and valuable heritage to build new human philosophy in this global times.

However, because of historical and social reasons, traditional Chinese philosophy now has been verged in Chinese culture and society since May Fourth movement in 1919. Philosophy study in China now almost wholly ruled by Marxism officially and by Western thinking way in reality. It is easy to find Western philosophers who speak in Chinese, but difficult to find the real Chinese philosophers in China.

To my knowledge, in western countries, post Kant, three philosophy trends developed. Dialectic reason after Marx and Hegel has not got successors in 21^st century. The other two trends, rationalism one got into the narrower and narrower path, only takes language or logic of language as its world and non-rationalism one got into the same narrower and narrower path, exclude all reason factors from philosophy. In my opinion, in today’s Western world, only new Scholasticismus inherits the philosophy heritage consciously, and up to now, this philosophy school just has been verged for several centuries.

 Today, when we live in a new existence state—globalization, at the moment we have to face the new challenges and requests of the era, we especially need to study, comb, refine, and integrate our incomparable and valuable heritage of Western and Chinese philosophies. Here, I bring up a reference framework (‘Iron triangle of Philosophy of harmony’ ) to integrate our philosophy heritage, that in terms of ontology or world outlook, we should give up absolutism of a certain ism, permit legitimacy of diversified standpoints; in terms of axiology or value standard, we should identify with universal human rights value and universal ethics value that mark or implicate today the mature degree of human spirit as bottom line of human value standards; and in terms of epistemology, we should combine reduction method and dialectic and put them in use just right to proper places. 

Llihua2003@vip.163.com