20190429臺大哲學系學術討論會：語言、想法和古典漢語哲學中的美學式思考

 

This essay examines how certain distinctive features of the structure of classical Chinese have shaped Chinese philosophical thinking and made it more “aesthetic” than its Western counterpart. Based on linguistic studies, I first clarify and defend the approach I take and analyze the relationship between language and thought. Second, I investigate the distinctive features of the structure of classical Chinese. Third, I analyze the cognitive mechanism of “aesthetic thinking.” Based on Kant’s aesthetics, particularly his account of “free play,” I argue that aesthetic thinking describes a special kind of cognitive process involved in the free play of cognitive faculties and it is fundamentally different from the kind of cognitive process afforded by logical and analytical thinking. Finally, I argue that compared to structures of Indo-European languages, the structure of classical Chinese better induces aesthetic thinking or free play, especially when it is used as a medium of philosophical discourse.