The Importance of Teleology to Boyle's Natural Philosophy

Boyle prefaced his Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things with the claim that there are three dangerous consequences for failing to engage in the pursuit of final causes. Boyle was sincere in this claim, for there is a systematic line of reasoning in his texts that incorporates all three consequences and establishes conceptual connections between his science, his theology, and his value theory. I argue in this paper that Boyle's teleological outlook led him to believe that the natural philosopher is morally obligated to continue his investigations of nature on the grounds that a deeper understanding of the teleological order necessarily motivates divine worship. Moreover, Boyle saw a conceptual connection between a teleological study of nature and revealed theology, a connection that reveals that a study of teleological nature can lead to the highest form of happiness. I conclude with a summary, and some remarks about the sincerity and weaknesses of Boyle's reasoning.     

Philosophy,Early Modern Intellectual History,and the History of Philosophy

Historians of philosophy are increasingly likely to emphasize the extent to which their work offers a pay‐off for philosophers of un‐historical or anti‐historical inclinations; but this defence is less familiar, and often seems less than self‐evident, to intellectual historians. This article examines this tendency, arguing that such arguments for the instrumental value of historical scholarship in philosophy are often more problematic than they at first appear. Using the relatively familiar case study of René Descartes' reading of his scholastic and Aristotelian contemporaries, the article attempts to problematize this notion of pay‐off from an historian's perspective.     

New Perspectives on Agency in Early Modern Philosophy

ABSTRACT

This introductory article outlines the themes and aims of this special issue, which offers new perspectives on early modern debates about agency in two ways: First, it recovers writings on agency and liberty that have been widely neglected or that have received insufficient attention, including writings by Anne Conway, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, William King, Gabrielle Suchon, Elizabeth Berkeley Burnet, Mary Astell, and Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury. Second, it reveals the richness of early modern debates about agency and liberty.     

医学迷信昌盛的秘密

人们对自己的身体的秘密总是抱着幻想,希望碰上神奇而快速的治疗方法。而一个江湖医生,只要摆出门面,就往往能赚大钱。其次,如果他表现真诚,或者有一点真诚,他的医疗成果肯定能骗人上当。当然,有些人本来就是骗人的庸医,而另一些庸医表现出具有欺骗性的真诚,更是让病人受害匪浅。     

近现代汉传佛教哲学的变迁以及启示

汉传佛教的变革与发展遵循着自己特有的规律。现代性或者现代化的思想对其变革起到了催化或者唤醒某些成分的作用。这是因为,佛教与西方科学和理性之间毕竟在理论志趣、认识方法、实现路径不同。近现代中国佛学的变革是在现代性的活动范围和历史变迁的背景下展开的,因此,现代性不是作为一些抽象原则而被先验地强加到中国佛学的变革之上,而是作为一种实存中的本质而必然出现在中国佛学展开过程之中。在此意义上,研究近现代100多年来中国汉传佛教变革中的现代性因素,有助于全面了解佛教史、批判继承佛教文化,有助于正确认识和处理当代与佛教有关的国际、国内问题,有助于反思现代性面临的困境和当代佛教的价值。     

The Logic of Chastity: Women,Sex, and the History of Philosophy in the Early Modern Period

Before women could become visible as philosophers, they had first to become visible as rational autonomous thinkers. A social and ethical position holding that chastity was the most important virtue for women, and that rationality and chastity were incompatible, was a significant impediment to accepting women's capacity for philosophical thought. Thus one of the first tasks for women was to confront this belief and argue for their rationality in the face of a self‐referential dilemma.     

哲学进步与现代意识

现代化的社会需要有现代化的哲学。造就现代化的哲学，就需要哲学本身具备现代意识，突出现代意识特征。这对促进哲学进步甚为重要。哲学现代意识，从现代性的角度上讲，其完整意义主要表现在两大方面：一是对传统哲学意识的时代性突破、批判、扬弃和超越，在哲学的质态中包容、传承和改造传统理性的形式和内容，使其在新的时代背景和理性意蕴下创造新意境、开辟新天地，展现新形态；二是从相对单一的、迷信的、宿命的、教条的盲从或凝固化、模式化甚至是曲     

Teaching Early Modern Philosophy as a Bridge between Causal or Naturalistic and Conceptual Thought

It is a challenge in teaching early modern philosophy to balance historical faithfulness to the arguments and concerns of early modern philosophers and interpreting them as relevant to the kinds of thinking that contemporary undergraduate students find plausible. Early modern philosophy is unique, however, in applying modern scientific method directly to problems concerning nonphysical aspects of reality that our contemporary scientific thought, and with it mainstream contemporary culture, no longer find amenable in their own, independent right to reliable reasoned approaches. At the same time, early modern philosophy often also takes seriously purely conceptual or logically consequential thought in the investigation of these topics, as our mainstream contemporary culture does not. This kind of thought, we argue, is distinctive of philosophy in general and appropriate to nonphysical aspects of reality. Early modern philosophy, then, offers a bridge between the kind of reasoned, objective thought our mainstream culture finds plausible and thought about nonphysical reality or, in general, the thought that characterizes philosophy.     

情绪的早期哲学思想

本文对西方心理学史上一些重要的哲学思想就情绪的本质、情绪与认识的关系以及情绪与动机的关系等基本问题进行一定的分析和论述,为进一步认识和理解西方情绪心理学提供一定的历史背景。     

庄子哲学对现代医患关系问题的启迪

《庄子·内篇·人间世》讲述了如何在不以个体意志为转移的世事中"托不得已以养中"的处事方式,这样以"出世"之态,行"入世"之实的理论推演,实际上是庄子哲学的一贯风格。与多数人的观念不同,庄子并非隐者,其独树一帜地对个体生命的尊重与关怀,值得现代社会再度重视。"勿相物"是庄子在《庄子·内篇·人间世》中提出的重要理论之一,意为不要将他人当作自己谋取利益的工具,其保全生命价值的意图,展现了对个体生命本质的极大尊重。期望能从庄子的"勿相物"理论中,找到庄子哲学对现代医患问题的一些启示。     

中国传统哲学范式的现代转型

中国传统哲学范式在历史上经历了从古典范式、近代范式到现代范式的转型,“哲学范式转型”意味着哲学重心的转移和透视问题的角度发生了根本的变迁。20世纪上半叶,可以称为传统哲学范式向现代转型的最初阶段。应当说,传统哲学范式的转型是与历史事件分不开的。传统哲学范式向现代的转型得益于五四新文化运动。它有两个基本的转型路向：首先表现为由意识形态向学术资源或知识形态的转型。这种转型突出地表现为现代新儒学对传统儒学范式进行了新的思考和变革,确立了它的现代形态。其次是为传统哲学范式向现代的转型做了准备,表现在对传统哲学进行了深入的思考和清理,并以新的哲学思想(西方哲学、马克思主义哲学)对传统哲学的整体框架给以全面审视。20世纪初的传统哲学范式的转型是中国哲学史上的一次重大飞跃。自此以后,传统哲学从语言表述到问题视阈,从内容到方法都进入了一个崭新的时期。     

Teleology and Structural Directedness

This paper examines the argument that scientific thinkers who embrace a religious tradition can promote intellectual integration between religion and science rather than fragmented discourse. It is argued that God’s Word as an event and the concept of structural directedness, an organized movement toward a future that does not demand a consciously intended end, may be helpful in understanding God’s actions in an indeterminant way.