The Constitution And Generation Of The Objective World

The analysis of the phenomenon and structure of consciousness is regarded as the core of the study in both the philosophy of Yogācāra(Vij(?)āpti-mātra-vāda,the School of Consciousness-Only or Wei-shih)and Husserlian Phenomenology,and there are profound similarities between their theories.The comparative study of Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology can provide a new viewpoint for solving the problem of the relationship between "self","other subjects of consciousness" and"world",and also make it possible to examine this problem from a wider perspective.Both Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology attempt to consider the "world"as a certain construction of consciousness.Through the method of phenomenological reduction,Husserl reduced the focus of phenomenological research to the transcendental ego which is a "monad".In this process,the external world lost the objectivity and validity of its own existence and dissolved into the subjectivity of transcendental ego.On the other hand,the theory of Yogācāra puts forward explicitly the proposition of "Consciousness Only and No External Spheres(Realms)of Objects"(Wei-shih Wu-ching),taking the individual’s inner consciousness as the only real existence and regarding "consciousness" as the noumenon of realizing the external spheres of objects,thus completely denying the independent existence of the external world.The similarity between them leads to their common problem,that is,the dilemma of "solipsism" and the resulting loss of the objectivity of the world.Therefore,for Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology,an important subject is how to get rid of the dilemma of solipsism so as to reconstitute the objectivity of the world.The measure that Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology has adopted to solve this problem is to find the objectivity of the world in "intersubjectivity",which means to verify the objectivity of the world by confirming the real interaction between different subjects of consciousness.The main difference between them is that while Husserl’s interpretation is primarily based on the perspective of epistemology,the interpretation made by Yogācāra has both the meaning of epistemology and ontology.But there is still a certain similarity in their approaches to this problem.From the perspective of Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology,the so-called "objectivity"actually means whichever is effective among or shared by groups of subjects.Therefore,the world shared by all subjects,or the "intersection" of the perception fields of different subjects of consciousness,is the single "objective" world.There are a lot of similarities between the general thoughts of Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology on the relationship between "self","other subjects of consciousness"and "world".Their central views on this problem can be summarized as the common structure of "self→ other subjects of consciousness→community of subjects of consciousness→world".For Yogācāra and Husserlian Phenomenology,these three concepts,viz."self","other subjects of consciousness" and "world",are all indispensable for the construction of their theoretical systems.