Interaction via the Concept of Being: Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung, Hung Yao-hsün and Their Ideas of Truth

Title

Interaction via the Concept of Being: Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung, Hung Yao-hsün and Their Ideas of Truth

Author

Yoshinobu SHINO

Page

25-48

DOI

10.6163/TJEAS.201806_15(1).0002

Abstract

This paper deals with two Taiwanese philosophers who studied in Japan in the colonial period: Hung Yao-hsün (1903-1986) and Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung (1910- 2007). It focuses on Hung’s “Being and Truth” (1938) and Tsêng’s Theory on Principle of Truth (1937), and aims to clarify the academic interaction between the two. Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung’s monograph shows that he was mainly stimulated by German idealism, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology and the Kyoto school, which were all very influential in Japanese academic discourse at that time. Comparing Hung’s “Being and Truth” with Tsêng’s Theory on Principle of Truth, it is clear that there are many prominent similarities. For example, both discriminate between formative truth and ideal truth, and try to build a bridge between them. For this purpose, they also criticize human-centrism, while making use of dialectic. In fact, Hung’s “Being and Truth” is more abstract than his previous articles, and therefore, we conclude that “Being and Truth” borrows the wisdom of Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung. As Tsêng’s work emphasizes the connection between pure truth and existence, Hung also restarts his research on existence after “Being and Truth”.

Keyword

Tsêng T’ien-ts’ung, Hung Yao-hsün, Theory on Principle of the Truth, “Being and Truth”, The Kyoto school

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