Let the Academic Expressions of Chinese Ethics Be ...
By the Chief-Ln-Editor Prof.Deng Anqing
To us the most serious crisis in the present world is the gradually collapse of the world order.The position of America as the leading sheep of the western world is in great peril,meanwhile the hope that the rising European Union can act as the balancing power of the world is almost foiled by the fact that EU is busy enough with its own affairs.Lt is true that China is a rising power,but due to the lack of a philosophy to lead the world spirit,it is not only difficult for the world to embrace her,but alsomakes the world feel uneasy and anxious instead.
Thus,themost urgentmatter of the present world is nothing more than ethical academic(acadēmia ethica),since the primemission taken on by ethics is to seek theway of coexistence of the human beings through wisdom-loving philosophication.Philosophy once promised that its thoughtwas to guard the home of existence,but when it took the meaning of existence as the highestmetaphysical issue to be grasped and comprehended,ontology and ethicswere separated abruptly from each other,resulting in such a fact that ethics as moral philosophy has being becoming a conceptual analysis ofmoral terms and an argument for the normal rationale ofmoral acts,thus making ethics finally forget its“home of existence”.Even in the case of the philosopher Martin Heidegger who devoted himself to the philosophical thinking of existence,because of his indisposition or unwillingness to touch on ethics in the sense as a life guide,he allowed for the separation of ontology from ethics.However,the crisis of the presentworld is not merely a call for a philosophy in the sense of ontology,but a more urgent call for“a selfjustification of existence”,that is,call for“an ethics concerning the justification of existence.”Consequently“ethics” truly becomes the called-for“prime philosophy”.
Not only does the conflict between Europe and America on one part and Lslamic World on the other call for the justification of their existence,butalso China as a new rising great power,whose people cherishing a rational appeal to amodern political ethic,calls for a kind of ethics which can justify her existence.
Alas! The presentethics is unable to respond to the groundswell of such a call voice of the world.The reason of western ethics'inability in this regard is because ethics has already forgotten and distanced itself from existence itselfwith the clamor of anti-metaphysics in the past nearly a century,thus having become a kind of semantic analysis and logic argumentation,or a kind of foundation-laying ofmoral norms in order to clarify the duty of what should be done,even or a kind of enunciation of virtueswith which one should become aman； in aword,ethics is fragmented under categorieswith classification of language,act and character which are not connected with each other； as such,how can it successfully take on themission of the prime philosophy to justify existence?!
The disability of Chinese ethics to take on this mission not only show in the lack of philosophical academic in a sense,but also in our ethics has on its shoulder comparatively too much stronger functions of cultivation,thus injuring the critical character of academic and the dynamics of originality.However,it ismuch stronger the call sounded by China than that sound by the world to justify existence in order to reconstruct the ethical order of themeaning world.(https://www.daowen.com)
Lf the present ethics fails to respond to such a calling voice,then philosophy not only allows herself to be close to“the end” happily,but also let scientists to laugh at her“alreadydead” willingly.
Our Acadēmia Ethica is just born in time to respond to such a call of the times.Through building such a worldwide platform,we are wishfully to prepare for the Chinese ethical academic to be integrated into thatof theworld,and try unremittingly to incorporate the“mercy mind and kind exemplar” in the world into Chinese ethical terminology and expression.
To responded to such a call,just as Frankfurt University of Germany has established an international Center for Studies of Norm and Order for the federation of scientists and scholars from all kinds of academic fields,we hope the brand new Acadēmia Ethica to facilitate a common room for those scholars who investigate the issue of reconstructing the ethical order of the presentworld to dialogue freely and exchange academically.
Ancient Chinese sages originated independently a kind ofworld ethical system in the Axial Age； with the introduction and absorption of the western academic in the past more than a hundred years,the present Chinese ethics should play a role in contributing the wisdom of Chinese civilization to the future“world under the heaven” by thoughtful accommodation and innovation.
Thus,at present time the meaningful philosophical investigations are definitely not to act on impulse to decide whether the west or the east is the winner,whether the ancient time or the present time is civilized or barbarous,but to know oneself and know each other,understand each other in mind,inspire each other in thought,with each other's advice to overcome heretic ideas,thus making an accommodation of a great ethical way of new human civilization,“impartially listening to both sides and following the middle course”.Only out of this,we advocate that the root should be returned to and thus starting anew,the great changes of ancient and modern times should be comprehended,the moral principles of west and east should be integrated into each other,any temporary and particular moral should be based on great permanent ethical virtues of human civilizations,so and somaking the academic expressions of Chinese ethics with an everlasting life integrated into historical trends of world history.Only through overcoming the provincial particulars of Chinese culture by her own universalization can she“in the world” undertake her great responsibility——“concern for the world under heaven”.