J. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion v.1 The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.362.The Rites Controversy, subject of an immense literature, is convenientlysummarised in Rule, 1986.�t Above, pp.161 2.�u M�moires, ix, pp.362 3.166 Paris and the defence of erudition, 1758 1763were perceived as its essence.In Chinese monism, however, all thingswere of the same substance (ch i ), but this substance displayed an infinitediversity of properties (li ), which combined and recombined in patternsapparent to the intellect, so that one said that a thing had come intobeing when one could see a pattern defining it, had ceased to be whenone could see its pattern no longer, had changed into or been replacedby another thing when the pattern had been replaced by another.�vFreret s account of neo-Confucian metaphysics appears at this point tobe emphasising its Buddhist component; all things are illusion; but this isnot the conclusion salient for him.Ce principe une fois pos�e, on voit ais�ment que la Philosophie Chinoisen admet ni cr�ation ni providence; et par cons�quent ne reconnoit point deDieu, c est-�-dire, d Etre distingu� de l Univers, qui ait produit ou cr�e leMonde, et qui le gouverne ou le conserve en cons�quence des loix qu il a�tablies.La Langue Chinoise n a m�me point de terme qui r�ponde � cetteid�e.[Once this principle is admitted, it is easy to see that Chinese philosophy admitsof neither creation nor providence, and consequently recognises no God: that isto say, no being distinct from the universe who has produced or created theworld, and governs or conserves it according to laws which he has established.The Chinese language has actually no term corresponding to this idea.]The distinction between Heaven (T ien) and Heavenly King (T ienCh u) of so much importance in the Jesuit encounter with Confuciandoctrine, the repudiation of the Jesuits by Rome, and the exploitation ofthe Jesuits by Voltaire, furnished only a convenient fiction for the vulgarmind, and even then is far from expressing the Christian idea of God.Le Roi du Ciel des Idolatres�w agit � la v�rit� avec connoissance, et � la manieredes hommes; mais ce n est qu une substance particuli�re, c est comme l �me duCiel, et une �me non distingu�e du Ciel materiel, parce que, suivant les id�esdes Idolatres, la mati�re est aussi bien capable de pens�e et de sentiment,comme de mouvement.Mais ces id�es sont proscrites par les meilleurs Philos-ophes Chinois, que rejettent tout ce qui pourroit mener � la connoissance d unEtre intelligent distingu� de l Univers, et qui t�moignent un grand m�pris pourcette opinion.�x[The Heavenly King of the idolators indeed acts with knowledge, as humansdo, but is simply a particular substance, the soul of Heaven; a soul, furthermore,not distinct from Heaven in a material sense, since according to these idolators,�v M�moires, ix, pp.363 4.�w This term, probably of Jesuit origin, seems to denote the followers of non-philosophical Chinesereligions, perhaps Taoist or Buddhist.�x M�moires, ix, pp.364 5.The Acad�mie des Inscriptions 167matter is capable of thought and consciousness as of movement.But these ideasare proscribed by the best Chinese philosophers, who reject all that might leadto knowledge of an intelligent being distinct from the universe, and display thegreatest contempt for such an opinion.]Freret answers the Baylean question of how a society of atheists canbe a moral society by observing that, for some Confucians at least, thevirtuous man, maintaining the rituals and practices of the moral code,finds the li, or principle informing both his moral and his material being,condensed, purified and perfected to the point where he may evenbecome an immortal, and be venerated as such after his apparent death,which may be itself an illusion.Those of the learned who do not followthis vulgar superstition nevertheless lay much stress on the pleasure, thesense of physical as well as moral well-being, which flows from thepractice of virtuous actions.�y They have (though Freret does not say so)become Epicureans: practitioners of a non-theist discipline of harmony,which co-exists with superstition at the philosophic level.Freret is in factat a critical point in the philosophy of Enlightenment.He was a vigorouspolemiciser against Christianity, and may have wished for means ofproclaiming himself an atheist (for those who could read between thelines); but atheism for one of his generation was very likely to take aSpinozist form, since only there could be found that refusal to separatecreator from creation, or spirit from matter, which Freret made centralto Confucian metaphysics (and moved Bayle to wonder if Spinoza hadbeen drawing on Chinese sources) [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

download - pobieranie - ebook - do ÂściÂągnięcia - pdf

Menu

Drogi użytkowniku!