Intellectual Intuition and Chinese Philosophy

Introduction

Mou Zongsan, a leading figure of New Confucianism who taught in Taiwan and Hong Kong after 1949, published the book in 1971. Kant held that human beings have only sensible intuition and therefore know things only as they appear; intellectual intuition, which would grasp things in themselves, is reserved for God. Mou argues that Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism all affirm such intuition for the fully realised human mind – in Confucian terms, the “original mind” (benxin) of Mencius and Wang Yangming. The infinite human mind thus becomes the basis of a moral metaphysics. He developed the argument further in Phenomenon and Thing-in-Itself (1975); critics have objected that he misreads Kant.

Connections

Builds on

• Instructions for Practical Living (Chuanxi lu)1518 · Wang Yangming

Criticizes

• Critique of Pure Reason1781 · Immanuel Kant

More works by Mou Zongsan

• 1958A Manifesto on Chinese Culture to the World