Abstract

Graham Priest claims that Asian philosophy is going to constitute one of the most important aspects in 21st-century philosophical research (Priest 2003). Assuming that this statement is true, it leads to a methodological question whether the dominant comparative and contrastive approaches will be supplanted by a more unifying methodology that works across different philosophical traditions. In this article, I concentrate on the use of empirical evidence from nonphilosophical disciplines, which enjoys popularity among many Western philosophers, and examine the application of this approach to early Chinese philosophy. I specifically focus on Confucian ethics and the study of altruism in experimental psychology.

Highlights

  • In his paper “Where is Philosophy at the Start of the Twenty-first Century?”, Graham Priest formulates a prediction concerning the expected scope of future philosophical research

  • Referring to scientific evidence can be found in recent publications by scholars specializing in Chinese philosophy. This can be exemplified by The Philosophical Challenge from China, a book devoted to new approaches in Chinese philosophy, edited by Brian Bruya, a philosopher working in both Chinese philosophy and cognitive science

  • Before I proceed to discuss the issue of altruism in the Mencius, it is necessary to highlight some features of Confucian ethics that justify its compatibility with experimental psychology argumentation

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Summary

Introduction

In his paper “Where is Philosophy at the Start of the Twenty-first Century?”, Graham Priest formulates a prediction concerning the expected scope of future philosophical research. Priest seems to be more inclined to the view that recently philosophy has manifested a growing tendency to incorporate scientific research, by which it becomes naturalized in terms of methodology In reality, this state of affairs is not so completely new, as Western philosophical theories quite often resort to their contemporary status of science to argue for their premises. Referring to scientific evidence can be found in recent publications by scholars specializing in Chinese philosophy This can be exemplified by The Philosophical Challenge from China, a book devoted to new approaches in Chinese philosophy, edited by Brian Bruya, a philosopher working in both Chinese philosophy and cognitive science. Daniel Batson (Batson 1991)

Confucian Ethics
The Altruism Issue
Mencius 2A6 Arguments For and Against Altruism versus Experiments
Findings
Methodological Conclusions
Full Text
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