• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.5
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• pp.109-126
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• 2003

The aim of this paper is to elucidate ancient Chinese philosophy and linguistics through the concept of the Dao. Ancient Chinese thought had developed together with ancient Chinese theories of language and the linguistic features of Classical Chinese. The concept of the Dao served as an intermediary among them. The Dao which ancient Chinese philosophers sought for has several characteristics: ethical normativity, wholeness, dynamicity, non-reducibility. Linguistic studies also revealed them. The following linguistic features of Classical Chinese are the cause and/or the effect of such Dao-based philosophy and linguistics: No explicit subject-predicate sentential structure, no parts of speech, heavy reliance on the word order and context for meaning determination, no explicit distinction between compound words and a sentence, the pictographic or the ideographic features of Chinese graphs, and non-existence of a copula.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.120-133
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• 2021

This paper proposes an interpretation of Charles Ess's pros hen pluralism, especially concerning what constitutes the single end point (hen) toward which the pluralistic viewpoints converge (pros). The single end point, I argue, is constituted by an empirical social reality that obtains in the world at a particular period. In other words, it is the fact that we happen to agree largely and broadly on several ethical issues that serves as the end point in Ess's theory. The reason is that humans happen largely to share the same goals and values qua human beings, such as the desire for communication and cooperation with one another. It is not their rationality, or any other permanent and ideal characteristic, that serves as the source of normativity for human beings, but rather the contingent facts that obtain at a particular place and time, facts that humans happen to agree on. This raises an obvious objection of what to do with those who might cherish a very different set of values. The answer is that the globalized nature of the world today, especially deepened by information technology, makes it increasingly difficult for any groups to remain isolated. This does not imply, however, that disagreements are not possible. On the contrary, disagreements are a part of the whole process from the beginning. At the theoretical level, there is always a need for those who disagree on the theoretical issues rationally to persuade one another. This is also part of the empirical reality referred to earlier.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.139
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• pp.47-80
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• 2016

The main aim of this article is to thoroughly illuminate the personality characteristic of "honesty (Redlichkeit)" that Nietzsche presents as one of the major 'virtues' in the sense of 'excelences of character', calling it "the Youngest Virtue". Clearly distinguished from the 'honesty' that conventional morality regards as the highest virtue, this particular trait or inclination Nietzsche has in mind is an affective disposition with a highly complicated structure, which is closely related to 'truth' and 'knowledge'. In this paper, I first analyze what "honesty" (as a Nietzschean excellence of character) consists of. Afterwards, I seek to answer what the evaluative status of the quality in Nietzsche's theory of 'value' understood as what ought to be possessed or pursued, especially, the question of whether or not the disposition is treated as an 'intrinsic' value. Finally and most importantly, I explore the reasons why Nietzsche confers the aforementioned normative significance upon the excellence at issue.