Dai Zhen
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Dai Zhen (Traditional Chinese: 戴震, Wade-Giles: Tai Chen, 1724-1777) was a notable scholar of the Qing Dynasty from Xiuning in Anhui province. A versatile scholar, he made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy.
Dai Zhen's philosophical contributions included contributions to the Han Learning school of Evidential Learning which criticized the Song Learning school of Neo-Confucianism. In particular, two criticisms that Dai Zhen made was that Neo-Confucianism focused to much on introspective self-examination whereas truth was to be found in investigation of the external world. Second, he criticized the Neo-Confucian drive to eliminate human desire as an obstacle to rational investigation. Dai Zhen argued that human desire was a good and integral part of the human experience, and that eliminating human desire from philosophy had the bad effect of making it difficult to understand and control one's emotions as well as making it impossible to establish empathy with others.
[edit] Reference
- Elman, Benjamin A. From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, 1984.
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Dai Zhen
- Encylopedia of Religion entry on Dai Zhen
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