方東美的生命觀與西方創化思想=Aspects of Creative Evolutionary Thought in Thomé H. Fang’s Account of LifeAspects of Creative Evolutionary Thought in Thomé H. Fang’s Account of LifeAspects of Creative Evolutionary Thought in Thomé H. Fang’s Account of LifeAspects of Creative Evol
Thomé H. Fang grew up in the turbulent times of modern China, at a time of wholesale rejection of tradition and complete acceptance of the West. He saw his mission as that of recovering the role of China as subject and it was this mission which inspires his philosophy. The thesis makes three points. The first point looks at how Fang’s philosophy draws together Chinese and Western thought in what may be called a philosophy of “living life” (Book of Changes). The second goes beyond this “power of living life” to the creativity of Western thinkers such as Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin and Whitehead. With this we come to a philosophy of “unceasing creativity”, “change”, “creation” and “evolution”. While philosophers aim to help us consolidate a higher level of civilisation and a happier plane of life, they tend to overlook the fact that it is only in a concrete life of faith that human beings can attain to the experience of eternal hope, hence the third point turns to Karl Rahner’s view of spirituality as a supplement to Fang’s philosophy.
