| The idea of creatio ex nihilo, or creation out of nothing, has been inadvertently imposed upon the interpretative history of Chinese philosophy. That is, interpreters of the Chinese tradition have assumed that there is a metaphysical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. I argue that no such doctrine is present.; Within the western tradition, American pragmatic philosophers and European existentialists have attacked the idea of creatio ex nihilo. By correlating these philosophies with Chinese philosophy, we open new ways to interpret Chinese philosophy, without reference to the creatio ex nihilo doctrine; and we also provide fresh perspective on issues in process philosophy. Specifically, I argue that Confucianism resonates well with the internal critique of western philosophy undertaken by American pragmatists on the issue of creativity.; Through an analysis of key terms, I examine a uniquely Chinese sense of "creativity," expressed in the continuity of personal experience and the world. I establish the idea of creatio in situ, contextual creativity, on the basis of the Confucian term yi, which has the sense of both "intention/purpose" and "meaning/naming." I relate contextual creativity to affectivity or feeling (qing) in terms of feelings (ganqing) and situation (qingkuang). I want to suggest that Chinese philosophical terminology is not simply a retrospective language that through a process of stipulation promises us knowledge of an existing world, but is also an open, prospective vocabulary that through productive associations allows philosophers to realize a desired world.; I rely on the productive power of Chinese terminology to justify the new term "Confucian pragmatism." Although there is much that distinguishes American pragmatism from Confucian philosophy, there is enough conceptual overlap to make Confucian pragmatism a viable, and exciting, field of study. It is a mutually informative and transformative philosophical dialogue, which creatively emerges from the context established by intercultural communication between Confucian and pragmatic traditions. |
