Editors’In this article, Chen addresses the political relevance of political philosophy, cautioning against direct application of philosophy in real politics. Rather than bring about good politics, a philosopher-king leads to terrible cultural life, for in such a political setting philosophy cannot but turn into ideology. A better way to understand such relevance is to think from the middle ground. The prosperity of cultural life is where the work of the politician and the work of the philosopher overlap and where philosophy (...) can be realistically expected to contribute. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

Editors’Bear bile is an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Each year, many bears are rescued from illegal bear farms, where they are kept in cages and frequently used for bile harvest through tubes attached to their bodies. In this article, Chen defends bear-rescuing activists against the charge that they fail to prioritize the human suffering, for school dropout kids in China seem to deserve help more urgently than bears. Chen argues that such a utilitarian picture misrepresents practical deliberation in (...) general and life choices in particular: Our practical deliberation does not begin with such a value hierarchy, nor can it stand without connecting to what we are committed to. (shrink)

Editors’In this paper, Chen aims to elucidate the nature of dianoesis, starting from the basic fact that we already hold a certain belief before we begin to argue for it. It concludes that what dianoesis endeavors to achieve is the understanding of ways-and-patterns of things, so that our scattered understanding gets connected. The author then addresses frequent misconceptions about the nature of dianoesis, such as that genuine dianoesis equals reasoning from premises neutral to any prejudice or from the absolutely evident (...) and that the sole function of dianoesis is to change the audience in their opinion in order to reach agreement. (shrink)

Editors’ abstractThe first part of Chen’s paper illustrates the fact that reasons contained in common sense serve an explanatory role fairly well for everyday living. The inadequacy of commonsensical explanations for abnormal cases, however, breeds the desire to seek a unified explanation for all cases. Philosopher-scientists, as Chen characterizes them, hold the conviction that such an explanation is offered by speculative theories, which are created by reflecting on the reasons contained in common sense and then weaving them into a systematic (...) theory. The second part of the paper shows that the philosopher-scientists’ theoretical project is doomed in light of the achievement of modern science, for which success in constructing positive theories relies on technical concepts defined independently of natural understanding and languages. Seeing this might help philosophy reorient itself to conceptual investigation and reflection on experience, which in Chen’s view offer the unique form of knowing that has always been central to the philosophical tradition. (shrink)