The Establishment Of The Spiritual Subject In Tang Junyi’s Philosophy

Focusing on the discussion of the “Subjective horizons part” in Life,Existence,and the Horizons of the spirit,this thesis attempts to examine in depth the specific process and theoretical basis for the establishment of Tang Junyi’s “spiritual subject”,and then to review it in some measure.Among them,the question of mind and body can be seen as an important clue to understanding his academic path: Tang first emphasizes the original significance of bodily perception for the subjective cognition,and argues that the inner connection between the ego and the world/others,is first presented in the body’s sensory interacting activity.Then,in response to nominalism and Hume’s question,he explains the necessity of the subject’s self-consciousness,thus formally raising the question of mind and body.On this basis,Tang then derives the problem of space-time from the issue of the body-phase of the subject’s senses,and regards the “Inward awareness” of Mind/Spirit as the fundamental guarantee of the“internal spatiality” of the senses.The unity of the subject’s activity is thus illustrated in the structure of the mind-body “Perception-Intuition”.Furthermore,through a reflection on the value basis of the subject’s sense and a exhaustive purification of egoism,Tang Junyi proceeds to prove the reality of Others from the “direct sense” of the mind/spirit and establishes an ethics of self-other interaction in the context of sympathy-pity,demonstrating the necessary turning from the cognitive mind to the moral mind.At the same time,the ability of the ego to turn towards the absolutely external Others also demonstrates the spiritual nature of the mind.In this way,Tang transcends an object-based mind-body relationship and establishes the spirit subject as the fundamental value of his philosophy from the perspective of non-pairing.With his excellent grasp of the theme of philosophy and his unique understanding of Chinese and Western philosophical thought,Tang Junyi presents his distinctive doctrine of subjectivity.The metaphysical rationale behind it and the thought thrust of“mind and reason are one” reflect his unique attempt to modernise the traditional theory of Xin Xing.However,his own theoretical presuppositions and ideological orientation have led to a tendency to structure and objectify the spiritual subject in actual discourse.And the rationalistic metaphysical theory behind the subjectivity,may even miss the most fundamental meaning of the concept of Xin Xing.Nonetheless,Tang Junyi’s emphasis on the non-pairing nature of the mind/spirit and the bodily nature of the subject is still an important inspiration for thinking about the doctrine of subjectivity.