A Study Of Zhang Dainian's Life Philosophy

Zhang Dainian(1909-2004) is a famous philosopher, historian of philosophy and cultural giant in the twentieth century in China.He made great contributions to the summary and innovation of Chinese philosophy and Chinese culture. Generally speaking, although the academic circle has made great efforts to study the main categories and propositions of Zhang Dainian's Philosophy in recent years, it is still not concerned properly enough. There still lacks the systematic study to Zhang Dainian's Life Philosophy, this is exactly the main task that this paper is trying to accomplish.Chapter 1 examines the Philosophy of Zhang Dainian with respects to Philosophy View, Methodology, Epistemology, Cosmology and Life Philosophy, and demonstrates Life Philosophy is in the core position in Zhang Dainian's Philosophy.Chapter 2 deals with the theory of Value, which is the theoretical basis of Zhang Dainian's Life Philosophy. Zhang Dainian is not only an important pioneer of Chinese Value Philosophy in the 30-40's of 20th century, but also is one of the important participants of the research upsurge of value in the 80-90's. Zhang Dainian's Axiology includes the General Axiology and the Axiology of Life, the paper studies the definition of Value, the theory of Intrinsic Value and Extrinsic Value, the Value Standard of JianHe (Harmony with Diversity, Creativity, Integrality and Dynamic Equilibrium as its essential factors) in turn, and induces the basic Principles of the System of Life Value.Chapter 3 deals with the theory of Ideal, which is the core of Life Philosophy of Zhang Dainian. Firstly, the paper discusses the Meaning of Life or the Status of People in theUniverse. Secondly, the paper discuses the theory of Human Nature, including the definition of Human Nature, Good and Evil, "Jinxing" (The fully realized of the Human Nature). Finally, the paper discusses the basic connotations of the Ideal of Life with "Oneness between Life and Principle" as its heart.Chapter 4 deals with the theory of Moral. Firstly, the paper discusses the problems such as the Category of Moral, the basic Principle of Moral, Moral and Social Institution. Secondly, the paper discus the Methodology of buildind up the new Moral System, the concrete content of the two kinds of Moral System in the 30-40's and 80-90's of 20th century.Chapter 5 deals with the theory of Freedom. Firstly, the paper discusses definition of Free Will, the relationship between Free Will and Moral Responsibility, the definition of Actual Freedom and the approaches of realizing it. Secondly, the paper discusses his thoughts about the relation between Freedom and Necessity through the form of "Effort" and "Fate".Chapter 6 discusses the thoughts of Ultimate Concern of Zhang Dainian, the Sphere Theory with Moral Sphere and Heaven-Earth Sphere as its major content, the "JianHe Personality" with a new interpretation of "Benevolence, Wisdom and Courage" as its core.Through the systemic construction of Axiology, Theory of Ideal, Theory of Moral, Theory of Freedom, Theory of Sphere and Theory of Ideal Personality, Zhang Dainian has established the first systematized and theorized Chinese Marxist Life Philosophy in the modern Chinese philosophy history. The intensive research of Zhang Dainian's Life Philosophy will contribute to compensate for the weaknesses in the research of Zhang Dainian's Philosophy of the current academia, thus we can gain a more accurate and more complete understanding to Zhang Dainian's Philosophy. More important is, it will contribute to estimate matter-of-factly the contributions which Zhang Dainian has made to build up the Chinese Marxist Life Philosophy, provide extremely useful references to the constructing of the new Life Philosophy with Chinese characteristics.