Title: The Idea of “Knowledge” in Chinese Philosophy and the Needham Puzzle
Lecturer: CHEN Jiaming (Professor at Xiamen University, and Director of the Center for Epistemology and Cognitive Science, Xiamen University)
Chairperson: YU Zhenhua (Fellow of Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, and Professor of Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University)
Date: 3 pm, May 28th, 2014 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
What is the cause for the backward of modern Chinese Science? The lecture will give an explanation from the perspective of the idea of “knowledge” in ancient Chinese philosophy. What the traditional Chinese philosophy provided was a kind of moral introspection and practical idea. Its goal was to seek moral principles, and to achieve the unity of knowledge and action. Therefore the seeking-truth epistemology “has never developed” in China, which results in the lack of the logic of thought and argument, as well as the lack of the idea of causality. These have direct relation with the backwardness of Chinese science since modern times. On the other hand, such idea of knowledge in Chinese philosophy gives rise to a special kind of “practical” epistemology.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer：
Chen Jiaming, Ph.D. at the Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1989. Professor at Xiamen University since 1994. Director of the Center for Epistemology and Cognitive Science, Xiamen University. Chief Editor of Xiamen University Academic Journal. A Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard University, USA, 2001-2002. K. C. Wong Fellow of British Academy, visiting St. Andrews University, UK, 1995-1996. A visiting scholar at Amsterdam University, Netherland, 1999 (by China-Eu Higher Education Cooperation Foundation). A visiting scholar at Marburg University, Germany, 1993. The Author of Constitutive and Regulative Principle: The Methodology of Kant’s Philosophy (1991, 2013), Knowledge and Justification: An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (2002), Modernity and Postmodernity (2001), etc., and over 100 articles. Listed in Who’s Who in Asia and the Pacific Nations, 1999. Asia/American Who’s Who, 2003.