Contemporary Chinese Philosophy in Light of Transplanted Words

Abstract

Editors’ Chinese vocabulary today features a special group of words, namely, those that were Chinese words in the past but now have lost what they used to mean. Instead, they have become Chinese versions of foreign words that they have been used to translate. Chen calls these words, as well as the words coined solely for the purpose of translating foreign words, “transplanted words.” Most of the words we are using in theoretic discourse today are such transplanted words. Chen, in this paper, examines the possible influence this phenomenon has had on philosophical thinking.