Thought and Society

Author: Zhang Dongsun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-01-01
Features: The purpose of this book is to explain that metaphysics is a kind of knowledge with special properties and functions, which is an indispensable element in culture. Such an explanation is still based on the sociology of knowledge (or epistemology of sociology). Therefore, before entering the main text, it is necessary to discuss knowledge, especially the knowledge of concepts, because only in this way can its social nature be seen. The human mind must develop to the stage of concepts to become knowledge. As for whether animals have concepts and whether humans have "cognition at the pre-conceptual stage," let the comparative psychologists, animal psychologists, and child psychologists study it. We are completely disregarding it now. Because in reality, whether there is a pure perception (perception in its purest form) without any mixture of memory, discrimination, or comparison; if there is none, then perception can be said to be knowledge, and there is no gulf between perception and concepts. As stated by W.T. Stace: "We cannot say how or why the mind conceptualizes. That it does so is an ultimate fact. Conceptuality is the fundamental nature of thought, which we discover and must accept with natural piety." (Wecannotsayhoworwhythemindconceptualizes．thatitdoessoisanultimatefact．Conceptualityisthefundamentalnatureofthoughtwhichwefindandwhichwehavetoacceptwithnaturalpiety，seeTheThcoryofKnowledgeandExistenceP.49.) Therefore, we no longer ask about the psychological state before the concept and only acknowledge this conceptual stage as a fact. This is the premise we must recognize when discussing "knowledge." Since we are talking about concepts, we must also know how many characteristics they have. According to psychologists (such as C·Spearman), concepts have characteristics such as fixity, discreteness, and verbality. I, however, believe that they all arise from the verbality aspect. Because they must be attached to symbols, they become fixed, and because they are fixed, they cannot have intermediate gradual transitions or continuous stages, thus becoming clearly defined boundaries. As for the so-called compositeness, it is not something that is not also derived from verbality. Because a concept is attached to a symbol, it naturally uses the same symbol to refer to many concrete things. It can be seen that when human thought reaches the conceptual stage, thought and language completely merge into one. It can also be roughly said that this is the verbalization of thought. It must be noted that language is a social product, so when the human mind develops to the conceptual stage, the sociality of consciousness (socialityofconseci-ousness) naturally succeeds. The true nature varies with the knowledge system. In common sense, truth is convenience (truthasconvenience). There is no convenience without truth, and there is no way to discover truth without convenience. Truth without convenience must await science to be discovered. In science, truth is fact (truthasfact). There is no fact without truth, nor is there truth without fact. Truth without fact must await metaphysics to be glimpsed. In metaphysics...