Peimin Ni
Grand Valley State University, Philosophy, Faculty Member
- With the understanding that cross cultural exchange is beneficial for all sides, serving as a bridge between China and the West.edit
This paper tries to explore a gongfu ethics on the basis of traditional Chinese ethical theories. Used in the sense that the Song-Ming Neo-Confucians did, “gongfu” means the art of life in general and not merely the martial arts, although... more
This paper tries to explore a gongfu ethics on the basis of traditional Chinese ethical theories. Used in the sense that the Song-Ming Neo-Confucians did, “gongfu” means the art of life in general and not merely the martial arts, although martial arts can be taken as a paradigm example of gongfu. The paper begins with the question “can bad guys have good gongfu,” which leads to three answers, each representing one stage of the dynamic relationship between morality and gongfu: The first is yes, since gongfu and morality belong to two different categories, i.e., the art of life and moral responsibilities. The second is no, because each moral goodness or badness corresponds to a respective gongfu virtuosity or the lack of it. The third answer is that moral persons, as long as they still have to invoke morality, are not true gongfu masters. Those who have real good gongfu transcend moral duties and become amoral. The analysis suggests a gongfu ethics that can include, but goes beyond moral goodness. The rest of the essay articulates the rich implications of this gongfu ethics by comparing it with virtue ethics, consequentialist ethics, and relativism-subjectivism.
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For instance, it is said that Sirhan Sirhan changed the future by assassinating the Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. That means, had he not shot Kennedy, the "future" would have been different. But people do not think that... more
For instance, it is said that Sirhan Sirhan changed the future by assassinating the Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. That means, had he not shot Kennedy, the "future" would have been different. But people do not think that anyone can change the past; for what has been done cannot be undone. The past is fixed. No matter how deeply Sirhan regrets his action, once he had done it, he could not undo it. It is believed that even God cannot change the past. So even if God regrets that he allowed Sirhan to kill Kennedy, he has no way to undo it. J. J. C. Smart and Paul Horwich have pointed out that this characterization of the asymmetry of time is misleading. While they both agree that the past cannot be changed, they argue that the same can be said about the future; for the future is simply what it will be; no one can make what will not be, be. (See Smart, 1967, p. 133 and Horwich, 1987, p. 116.) Their remarks are insightful; but their treatment of the matter is too brief and oversimplified. In this paper, I shall illustrate several senses in which we may use the term "change". In some senses, to change the past is no less possible than to change the present and the future; in some other senses, it is as impossible to change the present or the future as it is to change the past; in still another sense, a quite limited one, I do find the asymmetry between changing the past and changing the future; but the asymmetry seems to be just a contingent truth rather than a logical necessity.
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Unlike typical journal articles that deal with specific issues in detail, this article offers a sketchy comprehensive re-description of the Confucian Way of family that serves the purpose of providing a bird’s-eye view to grasp the fact... more
Unlike typical journal articles that deal with specific issues in detail, this article offers a sketchy comprehensive re-description of the Confucian Way of family that serves the purpose of providing a bird’s-eye view to grasp the fact that, for Confucianism, family is not merely a part of the puzzle of human life, nor merely an ontological entity that serves as the foundation of the Confucian theory, but more a “Way” of living or gongfu 功夫 that comprised of values toward which cultivation of the person is practiced, an art of life to be mastered, and a model of social order to be implemented.
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The philosophy thought by Confucius two thousand five hundred years ago is enjoying an officially supported revival in its native China. As it prepares to assume its predicted role as the world's largest economic power, the PRC seeks... more
The philosophy thought by Confucius two thousand five hundred years ago is enjoying an officially supported revival in its native China. As it prepares to assume its predicted role as the world's largest economic power, the PRC seeks to cultivate and practice the rules of pragmatic wisdom enshrined in Confucianism, both to improve, refine and discipline its domestic society and to enhance its growing soft power worldwide. The qualities of humanism, courtesy, openness, reverence for learning and religious rites inherent in that tradition can only bring a welcome relief from the social ills generated by both Marxism and capitalism as a result of their materialistic foundations.
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Unlike typical journal articles that deal with specific issues in detail, this article offers a sketchy comprehensive re-description of the Confucian Way of family that serves the purpose of providing a bird’s-eye view to grasp the fact... more
Unlike typical journal articles that deal with specific issues in detail, this article offers a sketchy comprehensive re-description of the Confucian Way of family that serves the purpose of providing a bird’s-eye view to grasp the fact that, for Confucianism, family is not merely a part of the puzzle of human life, nor merely an ontological entity that serves as the foundation of the Confucian theory, but more a “Way” of living or gongfu 功夫 (aka kung fu) that comprised of values toward which cultivation of the person is practiced, an art of life to be mastered, and a model of social order to be implemented.
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LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in... more
LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.近二十年來有關氣功的論爭有一個明顯的特點，即科學佔據了整個論爭的中心地位。懷疑論者用科學作為準則來對氣功的命題提出質疑，指斥外氣為迷信和騙術。氣功的支持者們則試圖通過科學實驗來證明外氣的存在和功效，卻又常常被指斥為偽科學。科學在當今的統治地位似乎已將問題定義為這麼一個兩難困境：要麼氣功為科學所證明，這就意味著它被歸結為常規科學所熟悉的解釋框架之中；要麼它不被科學所證明，於是它被指斥為迷信或偽科學。本文論證，對整個問題首先應當採取一個“康德式”的提問，即不是問氣功是否“科學”，而是問“氣功科學如何才是可能的”？本文的具體方法，是首先列舉氣功懷疑論者的主委論據，試析其如何將氣功變得不可科學地證明，然從列舉幾條氣功支持者們的主要理由，試析其如何使氣功變得幾乎不可證為。本文初步的結論是，氣功要成為科學，我們需要在七個方面保持適當的張力。The effectiveness of qigong (cultivation and application of qi-vital energy) is typically divided into two categories, the maintenance and improvement of the practitioner's own health and overall well being ("internal qi"), and the exertion of qi to affect external objects ("external qi"). Internal qi is less controversial partly because its effects are easier to be explained within the parameters of modern science, whereas external qi is much more controversial as its claims defray some deeply cherished common sense beliefs and we...
As one of the most influential comparative philosophers of our time, Henry Rosemont, Jr. is known for his unrelenting criticisms against Western libertarian ideas, and for advocating ideas derived from classic Confucian thought. One of... more
As one of the most influential comparative philosophers of our time, Henry Rosemont, Jr. is known for his unrelenting criticisms against Western libertarian ideas, and for advocating ideas derived from classic Confucian thought. One of the criticisms against him is that his views are one-sided, and hence unfair to Western libertarian ideas. In this paper, I argue that Rosemont's one-sidedness is deliberate. His theory is not intended to be a balanced account. I will illustrate that Rosemont's way of conceiving the human self is not peculiar to him, but characteristic of those who take philosophy as a way of life, such as Mencius and Sartre. I shall argue that their practices suggest a gong-fu perspective, with which we evaluate philosophical theories according to their functions in shaping people's behaviors and with consideration of the context of their uses.
ests include modern philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and meta-physics of causation. Calligraphy is esteemed as an art univer-sally. Good calligraphy adds beauty to the words and enhances the impact that the words are able to bring to their... more
ests include modern philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and meta-physics of causation. Calligraphy is esteemed as an art univer-sally. Good calligraphy adds beauty to the words and enhances the impact that the words are able to bring to their readers. In East Asian countries such as China, calligraphy is tra-ditionally respected as one of the most highly sophisticated forms of art. The reason that calligraphy can have such a status in China is partly due to the fact that Chi-nese written language is pictographic and ideographic, rather than alphabetic. In its primor-dial form, Chinese written language consists of images that picture their referents or directly sig-nify what they mean. That is different from most
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The Confucian tradition concerned not so much at constructing philosophical theories than at cultivating the person and living a moral life. During the Song-Ming periods, this learning on cultivation of the person was widely characterized... more
The Confucian tradition concerned not so much at constructing philosophical theories than at cultivating the person and living a moral life. During the Song-Ming periods, this learning on cultivation of the person was widely characterized as the learning of gongfu 工夫 (or 功夫, aka. Kung fu). Since gongfu is what the Confucian learning is all about and the term permeates all of ZHU Xi’s writings, it should not be taken merely as one part of ZHU Xi’s teachings next to other parts, but as a leading cord with which to grasp Zhu’s entire system. Only in grasping this cord can we see clearly why ZHU Xi selected the Four Books as the most fundamental works of the Confucian tradition, what he meant by the cosmic principle (li 理), and where he differs from other influential thinkers of his time.
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Responding to comments of my recent book, Understanding the Analects of Confucius , by Huang Yong, Fan Ruiping, and Wang Qingjie, this paper looks to highlight one of its major features—that it is a contemporary continuation of the... more
Responding to comments of my recent book, Understanding the Analects of Confucius , by Huang Yong, Fan Ruiping, and Wang Qingjie, this paper looks to highlight one of its major features—that it is a contemporary continuation of the Chinese tradition of doing commentary both as a way of allowing classic texts to unfold their rich meanings in the context of different times, and as a way for the commentator to express his or her own views. It strives to explain how a gongfu reconstruction of Confucianism can explain the apparent inconsistency between advocating rule-like instructions next to its encouragement of the art of flexibility, and to reveal what is more fundamental about Confucianism—rather than a system of rigid moral rules, it is an art of life. This gongfu interpretation would lead to the view that Confucianism does not depend on metaphysical truths as its justification, although it does need to hold metaphysical views as a way of affirming its values, which are justified t...
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Different from the commonly used moralistic perspective, this essay articulates and evaluates major ideas about human desire within the Confucian tradition through a gongfu perspective and shows that although there are historical reasons... more
Different from the commonly used moralistic perspective, this essay articulates and evaluates major ideas about human desire within the Confucian tradition through a gongfu perspective and shows that although there are historical reasons for blaming Confucianism for suppressing human desires and suffocating humanity, what classic Confucianism advocates is ultimately about how to cultivate humanity, transform human desires, and live artistically, and not about how to impose a rigid normative moral system externally to constrain human life, making it unsatisfying.
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About 60 years ago, Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (Tang Chun-i), Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (Mou Tsung-san), Xu Fuguan 徐復觀 (Hsu Fu-kuan), and Zhang Junmai 張君勱 (Carson Chang) published “A Manifesto for a Reappraisal of Sinology and Reconstruction of Chinese... more
About 60 years ago, Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (Tang Chun-i), Mou Zongsan 牟宗三 (Mou Tsung-san), Xu Fuguan 徐復觀 (Hsu Fu-kuan), and Zhang Junmai 張君勱 (Carson Chang) published “A Manifesto for a Reappraisal of Sinology and Reconstruction of Chinese Culture.” In the Manifesto, these major representatives of contemporary New Confucianism tried to rectify Westerners’ biases and reestablish Chinese people’s cultural confidence by upholding the Confucian learning of the heart-mind as the core of Chinese culture. Following the same approach, some prominent scholars today continue the effort of bringing Confucianism to a new epoch through reappropriating metaphysical theories of the heart-mind and human nature of the Zisi 子思–Mencius lineage, which flourished in the Song-Ming 宋明 period. This article critically reflects on this approach and argues that the Confucian learning of the heart-mind and human nature should not be taken so much as a mirror that reflects metaphysical reality than as a lever that direc...
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Using the opportunity of responding to Wang's critiques, this short article clarifies a number of important points related to the topic of human dignity. It argues that, only in moving beyond his a priori reasoning by assuming... more
Using the opportunity of responding to Wang's critiques, this short article clarifies a number of important points related to the topic of human dignity. It argues that, only in moving beyond his a priori reasoning by assuming humans to be rational agents can the Kantian theory of dignity be applied to actual humans; only in taking our moral potential as a recommended way of human self-identification can the is-ought dichotomy be resolved; only in respecting human dignity can punishment be justified; and only from its function in shaping our visions and attitudes can a teleological metaphysics be helpful.
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Growing out of traumatic life experiences in youth, the author started his lifelong journey in studying and practicing philosophy during the turbulent Cultural Revolution in China. The path took him from a “secret library” in the Worker’s... more
Growing out of traumatic life experiences in youth, the author started his lifelong journey in studying and practicing philosophy during the turbulent Cultural Revolution in China. The path took him from a “secret library” in the Worker’s Union Office of a steel plant to universities in China and the US; from seeking personal healing to becoming a public intellectual; from pursuing enlightenment in western philosophies to re-discovering his own Chinese cultural heritage; and from learning to think for oneself to becoming an active scholar and formulator of a unique philosophical theory—the philosophy of the way of gongfu, or the art of life.
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在当代世界哲学的语境当中，需要说明儒家心性之学本质上不是反映形上实在的镜子，而是提升人的境界与功夫的杠杆，方能既不致误解儒学精髓，又能使儒学成为当代世界文化的建构资源。
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2019 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature, presented by the Modern Language Association