Cong Zhongguo zhexue de neizai luoji dao duoyuan de Zhongguo zhexue [From The Inner Logic of Chinese Philosophy to Pluralist Chinese Philosophy]

Abstract

In this essay I argue that whereas earlier generations of internal participants in the formation of Chinese philosophy as an academic discipline acknowledged that �Chinese philosophy� was a product of the complex interaction between internal and external agencies; and that one or more non-Chinese philosophical tradition was essential to articulating China�s philosophical past,influential modern commentators have instead argued that paradigms and norms derived from the West, in particular, are not only inappropriate to the articulation of China�s philosophical heritage but are also fundamentally hegemonic. I also draw attention to the influence of what I call the �inner logic� paradigm�which emphasizes the continued agency and relevance of the past in the present�as developed, in particular, by intellectual historians of China, on contemporary Chinese views of China�s philosophical heritage. I maintain that this paradigm has contributed to the conferral of methodological legitimacy on so-called epistemological nativism: the idea that the articulation and development of China�s philosophical heritage must draw exclusively on the endogenous paradigms and norms of China�s indigenous heritage.