Speaking of Western philosophy, many people have heard professional terms such as ontology , metaphysics , idealism , and seem to have a certain understanding and understanding of them. But in Western philosophy, the true meaning and derivative meaning of these concepts may be different from what most people think in the Chinese-speaking world. On September 25, philosophy professor Sun Xiangchen walked into @ Fudan Philosophy live broadcast room, and shared with netizens the history of the evolution of Western philosophy in the dual context with the title "How to understand the history of Western philosophy in the Chinese world". The entire live broadcast lasted about 2 hours, attracting more than 1.6 million people to watch online.
Sun Xiangchen is a professor at and dean of the School of Philosophy at Fudan University. His main research directions are the history of modern Western philosophy, political philosophy, Jewish-Christian philosophy, comparative philosophy, etc., and has been selected as the leading social science talent in the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" and the leading Shanghai talent. The teaching project he led has won many national awards, published hundreds of papers in magazines such as " Chinese Social Science " and "Philosophy Research", and many works and papers have won the Shanghai Outstanding Achievement Award for Philosophy and Social Sciences.
"In life, everyone has his own philosophy moments." During the live broadcast, Sun Xiangchen first pointed out that philosophy is not far from people's lives. As long as you understand life in a reflective way, it is very close to philosophy; but he also said that philosophy often exists in a way that goes beyond people's daily cognition. Learning Western philosophy is a way to practice philosophy. However, to understand Western philosophy well in Chinese, we must not only know the meaning of a philosophical term after being translated into Chinese, but also know the original meaning of this word in , , and truly "know what it is," so that we can better integrate the life and professionalism of philosophy.
So, what is the significance of Chinese people studying the history of Western philosophy? Sun Xiangchen explained from three dimensions: "understanding the Western worldview, understanding the modern world, and understanding the evolution of concepts." He first pointed out that in the long history of the development of Western philosophy, different factions and theories have emerged, but they cannot be equally matched. Not all philosophers are equally important and need to grasp the most critical ideological links. He focused on recommending five philosophers, including Plato , Aristotle , Augustine , Descartes , and Kant , pointing out that they are the most important philosophers supporting Western philosophy. By understanding their philosophy, they can better understand the formation and evolution of the Western worldview.
For today's Chinese people, if they want to have a deep understanding of themselves, they will probably read the works of their ancestors such as Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and Zhuang. But Sun Xiangchen believes that it is far from enough to find the answer in ancient Chinese philosophical thoughts, because we are in a modern world, "many disciplines of modern civilization were not available in ancient China." Therefore, ordinary people can understand the history of Western philosophy a little, which can not only deepen their understanding of the modern world, but also better understand themselves.
From the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to Western learning spread eastward , Matteo Ricci entered China, and different Western philosophical thoughts began to be implemented in the Chinese world, some were successful and even sought after, and some were lost. Sun Xiangchen believes that "the Chinese-speaking world does not only refer to language, but also includes the historical memory of the Chinese people, as well as the cognition and exploration model of the world." He gave an example of the "Kant fever" triggered by the academic community in the 1980s, pointing out that the "subjectivity" philosophical thought advocated by Kant was in line with the spiritual needs of people at that time, and thus formed the "philosophical demands" of the Chinese people in that era.
Chinese context has given Western philosophy new vitality, but the huge differences between Chinese and Western cultures and history have also caused the ambiguity of many philosophical professional terms. For example, "ontology" translated as "ontology", Sun Xiangchen pointed out that "ontology" studies existence beyond existence and is the first philosophy in Western philosophy, and can also be translated as ontology and the theory of all things. Some people even translated it as " is ontology ", which has no direct relationship with the word "ontology".In Chinese cultural tradition, the word "ontology" is more likely to remind people of the ontology in traditional theory of form and use, but in fact the two are very different. He suggested that everyone should be vigilant when reading translated works. It is best to have Western texts as references and understand the evolution of these concepts and why these different translations are present in order to understand and think more clearly about the mystery of Western philosophy.
When talking about how to deal with the challenge of dual context, Sun Xiangchen further pointed out that many words in Western philosophy are not existing in ancient Chinese, and each word has the true connotation of Western traditions behind it. To gain a deeper understanding of Western philosophy, you need to trace the origin and historical significance of its thoughts, and at the same time, you should also pay attention to the fact that Western philosophical terms translated into Chinese have an additional context of Chinese meaning. He said, "Understanding the dual context of these words is not just to understand their meaning, but to allow us to form a cultural dialogue within ourselves. This is the burden of our study of Western philosophy and our advantage."
It is reported that this lecture is one of 100 open classes initiated by Douyin in conjunction with many universities and institutions, and is also the third in the opening season of Fudan College of Philosophy. In addition to Sun Xiangchen, Wu Xiaoming and Zhang Rulun have been lectured in the official account of @Fudan Philosophy with the titles of "Philosophy - Things of Thoughts" and "Philosophy in Chinese and Western Perspectives". In addition, professors from the School of Philosophy of Fudan University, such as Xu Yingjin, , and other professors from Fudan University will also appear in the "100 Open Classes" one after another, bringing netizens a series of introductory philosophical lectures.
In recent years, with the help of short videos and live broadcasts, more and more knowledge has gone out of the campus and benefited the public. The "2021 Douyin Data Report" shows that as of the end of last year, 92% of the national "Double First-Class" universities have settled in Douyin, with 14,463 broadcasts in colleges and universities throughout the year, and the total length of time for netizens to watch public classes exceeding 1.45 million hours.
