EW Metaphysics Questions

First Draft

These are approximately the questions from which the final examination will be drawn. On the day of the examination, I will randomly select five of the following questions and you will be asked to write on three of them. You are welcome to work together and discuss the questions and exchange information and insights, but both the outline and the formulation of your answer should be uniquely your own. If answers from two students are too much alike, both will be marked down for lack of originality. The revised and final version of the questions will be available around the end of March.

1. Explain the Neo-Confucian metaphysical scheme. Is it continuous with the classical (Pre-Han) Chinese metaphysical account of guidance? How has Confucianism been changed by ideas from Han Confucianism, Neo-Taoism and Buddhism?

2. Discuss how features of classical Chinese language (particularly those that contrast with Indo-European languages) can explain differences between Chinese and Western metaphysical structures and assumptions?

3. What is dao? Explain how dao can both be a source of and sustain everything.

4. How does the Zhuangzi's analysis of the disagreement between realism and relativism grow out of the Confucian-Mohist moral debate? Explain the function of shi-fei and bian in the formulation of the realist-relativist issue in China. Is it simultaneously a metaphysical and moral problem? Explain.

5. Explain the three main views in classical Chinese philosophy about the relation of names and objects? Which would be most plausible to a classical Chinese philosopher? Why?

6. Does Chinese philosophy have a mind-body distinction? Explain and discuss what other conceptual distinctions importantly shaped Chinese philosophical doctrines.

7. The Zhuangzi lays out a theory of theoretical development of Daoism that goes from Shen dao to Laozi and then to Zhuangzi. It suggests that at each step something was accepted and something rejected. Explain the three doctrines, what each contributed to Daoist analysis, and what was rejected at the next stage.

8. Does Chinese have a concept of being? What is the Chinese problem of being and non-being? How does it emerge in Chinese philosophy what important roles does it play?

9. Explain Graham's analysis of shi-fei. How does that analysis illuminate Zhuangzi's response to Later Mohist realism? Does Zhuangzi deny the claim that there is a "right" position in bian?

10. Explain how the principles of interpretation are involved in deciding how to interpret the first chapter of the Daode Jing.