惊异与真理的哲学 Philosophy of Wonder and Truth

我们注意到西方哲学始于惊异。据说惊异是哲学家的特殊感情，因为除此之外，哲学没有其他的起点。
惊异哲学已经融入前现代哲学。哲学家如柏拉图与亚里士多德以惊异之预感来接近现实。就是说，先假设知识存在，而知识是以真理之存在作为必要条件的。
所以真理是哲学的中心课题之一。它也是最大的课题之一。几千年来，它都是一个独立存在的讨论课题。并且，哲学上很多争论都关系到真理，要不是依据真理的学说，就是暗用真理的学说。
就如亚里士多德所说：‘吾爱吾师柏拉图，吾更爱真理。’
知识论就是对知识本质与依据的研究。知识论的学说的焦点是获取知识的方法与我们如何分辨出真理与妄语。现代知识论一般干涉到理性主义与经验主义的辩论，或者关于知识的获得是先验还是后验的问题。
理性主义：知识是从推理中获得。
经验主义：知识是从经验中获得。
有神论者在很大的程度上愿意接受理性主义，相信真理可从启示、神秘、信念，等中推理获得。文艺复兴（新生）初期，真理的寻找开始由宗教转向科学。从前，真理由某些参照物来决定，如上帝、普世智慧、自然法则、理念或者自然。现在，借用普罗塔哥拉德话，人‘是万物的尺度’，或者人是万物之本。

现代世界以科学方法寻找真理。现在主义者拥有信心满足的世界观。现代主义者相信在我们感官知觉以外没有存在物，他们以他们所经验到的来决定真理。现代主义者无条件的接受客观现实，把真理看成是哪些可证明或不可证明的陈述。
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We noted that the western philosophy began in wonder. It is said that wonder is the special affection of a philosopher; for philosophy has no other starting point than this.
The philosophy of wonder is wedded to pre-modern philosophy. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle approached reality with an aura of wonder, which assumes that knowledge exists, and that knowledge is justified according to the necessary conditions of it being true.
Truth is, therefore, one of the central subjects in philosophy. It is also one of the largest. Truth has been a topic of discussion in its own right for thousands of years. Moreover, a huge variety of issues in philosophy relate to truth, either by relying on theses about truth, or implying theses about truth.
As Aristotle said, ‘I love my teacher Plato, but I love the truth more.’
Epistemology is the investigation into the grounds and nature of knowledge itself. The study of epistemology focuses on our means for acquiring knowledge and how we can differentiate between truth and falsehood. Today epistemology generally involves a debate between rationalism and empiricism, or the question of whether knowledge can be acquired a priori or a posteriori:
Rationalism: knowledge can be acquired through the use of reason.
Empiricism: knowledge is obtained through experience.
Theists tend to be much more willing to accept rationalism, believing that ‘truth’ can be attained through revelations, mysticism, faith, etc. During early Renaissance (rebirth) period, the search for truth began to shift from religion to science. Whereas truth had always been determined in reference to something else - God, universal intelligence, natural law, reason or nature - man became, to borrow a phrase from the Greek Sophist Protagoras, ‘the measure of all things.’
The modern world searched for truth scientifically. Modernism possessed a confident worldview. Believing that nothing exists beyond what our senses can perceive, modernists determined truth as they experienced it. Modernism, with its unconditional belief in objective reality, saw truth as the result of statements that could be either proved or disproved.

惊异与忧虑 Wonder and Concern

在西方，据说哲学始于惊异。对比而言，中国哲学始于一种忧虑态度的结果，这种忧虑最终导致以实践智慧来引导人类命运。
古代希腊人被这个丰富、秩序井然与美丽的世界所吸引。他们惊异于我们所做的崇高与恐怖动作，与更重要的，惊异于我们神秘与闪避狡诈的本性。哲学家对此反思，尝试去了解世界与他们本身。
亚里士多德说，人们由于惊异而开始思考哲学。他们开始时惊异于眼前的难题，后来逐步前进，并阐明大事务的难题。
于此对比，中国人的思想，尤其是儒学思想，始于忧虑态度的结果，但并不导致普世学说，而是普世实践。由于对个人与社会命运的忧虑，中国人的心灵开始思考哲学。
这种忧虑可以恰当地被称为中国的‘忧患意识’。这种忧患意识导致一直忧虑事务出了怎样的差错与如何去补救这些事务。有人说，忧患意识在中国人的心中是挥之不去的现象。
习惯上被认为是孔子所写的易经‘系转’就表明易经作者是个忧虑的人。怀着这种忧虑不安的感觉，作者教导如何把危险转为安全，随意而安者必面对淘汰的命运。
正如孟子所说：‘生于忧患，死于安乐。’
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In the west, it is said that philosophy began in wonder. In contrast, Chinese philosophy began as a result of an attitude of concern, which led finally to practical wisdom for guiding human destiny.
The ancient Greeks were fascinated by the richness, order, and beauty of the world around us. They wondered at the grandeur and horror of the acts we perpetrated, and, not least, wondered at the mystery and elusiveness of our own nature. Philosophers reflect on all these matters, trying to understand the world and themselves.
Aristotle said that it is owing to their wonder that men begin to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters.
By contrast, Chinese thought in general and Confucianism in particular were originated as a result of the attitude of concern which led not to universal theorization, but to universal praxis. It was because of his concern with the destiny of the individual and society that the Chinese mind began to philosophize.
This concern can be aptly known as the Chinese ‘Worrying Mentality’, which always concern what has gone wrong with things and what can make things right. The worrying mentality is said to be an on-going phenomenon in the hearts of the Chinese.
The Great Appendix to the Book of Changes, traditionally attributed to Confucius as its author, proclaimed that the author of Yi must be a worried man. With this feeling of anxious apprehension, the author taught how peril may be turned into security, and easy carelessness is sure to meet with overthrow.
As Menzi said, ‘Life springs from sorrow and calamity, and death from ease and pleasure.’

子曰：政者正也 Confucius: To Govern Means to Rectify

马英九有一次问到访的新加坡退休贪污调查局局长，什么原因使新加坡成为世界上贪污最少的国家之一。对方说，是领导人的政治意志。
这句话给他留下深刻印象，认为是一语中的。他想到了孔子的话：‘其身正，不令而行，其身不正，虽令不行。’孔子也说：‘政者正也，子率以正，孰敢不正？’
孔子推行政府或领导以身作则，因为这样可获得人民的信心。‘政’与‘正’音义几乎相同，显示两者之间关系。孔子相信行动定下基调，人民的素质反映在领导者的身上。
这是基于所有人都有基本共同点与人可以修身与礼仪来加以教化的理念。相信人性本善与可教化性，对中国的政治组织有很大的影响。
在孔子的国度里，统治者的功能就是教育与改变人民。要达到这个目的，法律与强制并非上策，而是应由个人的自我约制，以身作则，争论则有统治者与他的官员来调解。为了达到和谐社会的目的，孔子的政治学说强调以调停而不是以抽象的法律来解决纠纷。
希望这种和谐社会也是无贪污社会，不会因领导人的消失而消失。
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Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) once asked a visiting retired Director of Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau the main reason that made Singapore one of the cleanest, corruption free countries in the world. He was told that political will of leadership is most important in fighting corruption.
He was impressed and thought that this really hit the nail on the head. That also reminded him that Confucius had said before, ‘If a ruler sets himself right, he will be followed without his command. If he does not set himself right, even his commands will not be obeyed.’ Confucius also said, ‘To govern means to rectify. Who will dare not to be correct, if the ruler leads the people with correctness?’
Confucius promoted a government or leadership by example as it would secure the confidence of the people. The words 'govern' and 'rectify' are nearly the exact same Chinese symbol, exposing the relationship between the roots of the words. Confucius believed action sets the tone, people therefore reflect the leader himself.
This is based on a belief in the fundamental similarity of all persons and that human beings can be educated through self-cultivation and the practice of ritual. The belief in the innate goodness and educatibility of man has had strong implications for the development of the Chinese political system.
The ruler's main function in the Confucian state was to educate and transform the people. This was ideally accomplished not by legal regulation and coercion, but by personal rule, moral example, and mediation in disputes by the ruler and his officials. Confucian political theory emphasized conflict resolution through mediation, rather than through the application of abstract rules to establish right and wrong in order to achieve social harmony.
Hopefully, such harmonious society is also corruption free, and will continue to function that way even when the good ruler is not around.

修身 Self-Cultivation

我们说，中国文化的基本精神赞成共生的精神与个人和个人所组成的社区相互存在。强调个人修养，因为通过个人修养可以达到丰富的知性与道德理解，这些理解会演化为和谐社会，最终改变世界。
‘大学’这对这点有很好的说明。
大学之道：在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。知止而后有定，定而后能静，静而后能安，安而后能虑，虑而后能得。
物有本末，事有终始，知所先后，则近道矣。
古之欲明明德于天下者，先治其国；欲治其国者，先齐其家；欲齐其家者，先修其身；欲修其身者，先正其心；欲正其心者，先诚其意；欲诚其意者，先致其知；致 知在格物。物格而后知致，知致而后意诚，意诚而后心正，心正而后身修，身修而后家齐，家齐而后国治，国治而后天下平。
自天子以至于庶人，壹是皆以修身为本。其本乱而末治者否矣；其所厚者薄，而其所薄者厚，未之有也。
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It is said that the underlying spirit of Chinese culture endorses the spirit of symbiosis and mutuality of individuals and the community formed by them. Self-cultivation is emphasised as it is through self-cultivation that one can achieve the comprehensive intellectual and moral understanding that will evolve a harmonious community and ultimately change the world.
This is well explained in the book ‘Great Learning’.
The way of Great Learning lies in demonstrating real character, in cherishing the common people, and making a commitment to doing what is best. Such a course of learning can only be set once one has made this commitment. Only in making such a course of learning is one able to find equilibrium, only in having found equilibrium is one able to become self-assured, only in having become self-assured is one able to deliberate in what one does, and only in being deliberate in what one does is one able to get what one is after.
Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. It is in realising what should have priority that will lead us near to what is taught in the Great Learning.
The Ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom first governed well their own States. Wishing to govern well their States, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their States were rightly governed. Their States being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
From the emperor down to the commoners, everything is rooted in personal cultivation. There can be no healthy branches when the root is rotten. It has never been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for and at the same time that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.