Chinese National Character and Peculiarities of Chinese Thinking: Towards a Methodology of Philosophical Research

Abstract

The study reveals methodological approaches to the philosophical analysis of the Chinese national character and the peculiarities of the Chinese thinking. The author shows the difference between the concepts of national mentality and national character, which partly coincide and partly differs. The author suggests that national character and its salient features make up an essential aspect (level) of the national Chinese mentality. The research examines a methodological problem of whether it is possible to define Chinese thinking as predominantly figurative, in contrast to the predominantly logical one of Europeans. The author hypothesizes and supports the idea that the emergence and formation of the Chinese mentality is auditory. The explanation clarifies the reasons for the birth of an “imbalanced individual” with clip consciousness. The Chinese have a longstanding tradition of developing practices in response to sound, without distinguishing between the material and the ideal, as they have never faced the problem of subject and object.