华人的一个世界的世界观 The Chinese One-World Worldview

我们已经注意到华人世界观的基本假设是只有一个连续的、具体的世界，这个世界是我们所有经验的来源与所在地。作为一个最古老的活文明，中国继续运用这个整体得、有机的世界观。它不但渗透它的历史，也渗透它的文化本质、社会与社会关系。

一个世界的世界观意味着，由于只有一个世界，创造之能源就在这个世界本身中，这个世界的秩序与规则的依据并不来自或为某些独立的活跃的力量所施给，而是存在于这个世界，并成为其重新建构的来源。变化与连续性同样是真实的。这个世界就是它自己的动力因。

在缺乏外来作用的原创行动下，没有统领宇宙变化的最后目的的这种假设。由于我们不能置身于作这个世界之外，每一种东西（人与事物）都置于某一位置而被观视，所以，与其置身的位置连续的每一件东西都相互关联，并互为界定。在这种情况下，没有两样东西是相同的，有些安置会比另一些安置来的更有创意性。每一种东西都是独特的。

所以，对生命与宇宙的了解形成一个单一连续体，包含了一切，从宇宙的结构，到季节变化，到人与人之间关系的运作。用《大学》的话，就是：‘物有本末，事有终始，知所先后，则近道矣。’

自然与人为条件是没有明显分别的，它们全部都能自由地栽培、连贯与操纵。人生经验的目的就是要协调那些组成一个人在此时此地的世界的元素，并从中取得最有效的和谐。

.

We have noted that the basic assumption of the Chinese worldview is that there is only one continuous, concrete world that is the source and locus of all our experience. As the oldest living civilization, China continues to operate from this wholistic, organic worldview. Not only does this view permeate their history, it permeates the very nature of their culture, society, and social relations.

This one-world worldview also means that, since there is only one world, the energy of creativity resides in the world itself, and that the order and regularity this world evidences are not derived from or imposed upon by some independent, activating power, but inhere on the world as a source of reconstrual. Change and continuity are equally real. The world is the efficient cause of itself.

In the absence of an initial creative act by an external agent, there is no assumed final purpose of goal that governs changes in the universe. Since we cannot get outside of this world, each and every thing (person or event) is perceived from some position or another, and hence is continuous with the position that entertains it, each thing is related to and a defining condition of every other. In such a situation, no two things are the same, and some dispositions are more fruitfully creative than others. All things are unique.

Therefore, the understanding of life and the universe forms a singular continuity embracing everything from the structure of the universe to the changing of the seasons to the workings of human relations. To borrow a passage from the Great Learning, ‘Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead us near to what is known as Dao (the Way).’

There is no firm distinction made between natural and man-made conditions – they are all open to cultivation, articulation and manipulation. The purpose of human experience is to coordinate the various ingredients that constitute one’s particular world here and now, and to negotiate the most productive harmony out of them.

西方的两个世界的世界观 The Western Two-World Worldview

我们注意到西方二元两个世界学说辨别了永恒的实在世界与变化的现象世界。

第一世界以‘实在’、‘知识’、‘真理’这类词语来界定，是正面、必然与自给的，而第二世界则以‘现象’、‘意见’及‘虚假’来描述，是负面、偶然与倚靠主要世界来解释。

第一世界被构成为创造泉源，把混乱变成自然与伦理秩序的创造与决定原理。西方人就是从这些决定原理中倾向于把世界解释为直线的与因果的，并在结论后面寻找前提、结果后面寻找原因、活动后面寻找作用者。

就是那个巴门尼德拒绝了世界呈现变化与多元化的普通见识，而坚持辨别现象与现实。现象世界就是所见之物体，或者是我们一厢情愿所欲目睹之物体。但是，官感是不能被信任的，因为它们是会犯错的，而它们一直在欺骗。真实只能通过纯粹逻辑、罗各斯，就是说以理性思维来接连。

所以，巴门尼德的这个想法后面含有另一个相同的重要的意见与真理的辨别。现象就只能产生意见，而实在才是真理的基础。

柏拉图承受了巴门尼德的存在不变的基本想法，发展了他自己的两个有差别的可知之真理世界与可视之意见世界。

西方传统以古典希腊的两个世界观作为‘客观’的学说基础；那就是置身事外而能观看事物的整体观的可能性。这个观点是说，独立于我们思维之外，存在着实在的客体与真相；而描述这一实在只能靠一种方法。

.

.

We have noted that the western dualistic two-world theory distinguish between a permanently real world and a changing world of appearance.

The primary world which is defined in terms of ‘reality’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’, is positive, necessary, and self-sufficient, while the second world is described as ‘appearance’, ‘opinion’, and ‘falsity’ is negative, contingent, and dependent for its explanation upon the first.

The primary world is construed as the originative source, a creative and determinative principle that brings both natural and moral order out of chaos. It is from this notion of determinative principle that westerners tend to take an explanation of the world to be linear and causal, entailing the identification of a premise behind a conclusion, a cause behind an effect, some agency behind an activity.

It was Parmenides who rejected the commonsense notions that world exhibits change and multiplicity and insisted on a distinction between appearance and reality. The world of appearance is how things seem or how one tends to perceive things. However, the senses are not to be trusted since they are fallible and they constantly deceive. What is real is only accessible through pure logic, the Logos, that is, rational thought.

Therefore, what lies behind this is Parmenides’ equally important distinction between opinion and truth. Appearance cannot produce more than opinion, whereas reality is the basis of truth.

Plato took Parmenides’ basic idea of the unchangeability of being and developed from this his distinction between the intelligible world of truth and the visible world of opinion.

The two-world view of classical Greece has given western tradition a theoretical basis for objectivity; that is the possibility of standing outside and taking a wholly external view of things. The view is that there is a reality of objects and facts that exists independent of the mind and there is only one correct description of this reality.