Work · East Asian Philosophy
Life, Existence and the Horizons of Mind
His last major work: nine horizons in which the mind relates to individual things, kinds, causes, itself, ideal meanings, morality and finally the transcendent – from Buddhist emptiness and the Christian God to the Confucian unity of heaven and virtue.
Introduction
Tang Junyi’s last major work appeared in two volumes in 1977, shortly before his death, and sums up his philosophy. It describes nine horizons (jingjie) in which the mind relates to the world, arranged in three groups: horizons of objects, horizons of the subject and horizons that go beyond subject and object. The highest three correspond to Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism, with the Confucian “flowing of heavenly virtue” as the most comprehensive. The structure recalls Hegel’s Phenomenology, but Tang described the horizons as mutually illuminating rather than superseding one another. The book is the most ambitious attempt of the New Confucians to build a philosophical system.
Connections
Builds on
- Phenomenology of Spirit1807 · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
More works by Tang Junyi
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