Kai Marchal – författare

Human beings have always been concerned with fundamental questions about their selves, including the deeply personal nature of human experience, the persistence of the self over time, the relation between mind and body, and the interdependence between self and community. The goal of this volume is to rethink these questions against the backdrop of the Chinese philosophical traditions, covering the ideas of major thinkers from Classical to late imperial China, with a particular focus on the fact that human experience is necessarily characterized by the first-person perspective. The contributors to this volume employ different methods (historical, comparative, phenomenological), but they all aim at bringing the rich resources of Chinese philosophy to life in our global present.

Human beings have always been concerned with fundamental questions about their selves, including the deeply personal nature of human experience, the persistence of the self over time, the relation between mind and body, and the interdependence between self and community. The goal of this volume is to rethink these questions against the backdrop of the Chinese philosophical traditions, covering the ideas of major thinkers from Classical to late imperial China, with a particular focus on the fact that human experience is necessarily characterized by the first-person perspective. The contributors to this volume employ different methods (historical, comparative, phenomenological), but they all aim at bringing the rich resources of Chinese philosophy to life in our global present.

Human beings have always been concerned with fundamental questions about their selves, including the deeply personal nature of human experience, the persistence of the self over time, the relation between mind and body, and the interdependence between self and community. The goal of this volume is to rethink these questions against the backdrop of the Chinese philosophical traditions, covering the ideas of major thinkers from Classical to late imperial China, with a particular focus on the fact that human experience is necessarily characterized by the first-person perspective. The contributors to this volume employ different methods (historical, comparative, phenomenological), but they all aim at bringing the rich resources of Chinese philosophy to life in our global present.

Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political examinesthe reception of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in China and Taiwan. The legacies of bothSchmitt, the German legal theorist and thinker who joined the Nazi party, and Strauss, theGerman-Jewish classicist and political philosopher who became famous after his emigrationto the United States, are highly controversial. Since the 1990s, however, these thinkers havehad a powerful resonance for Chinese scholars. Today, when Chinese intellectuals debate theChinese state, the future role of China in the world, the liberal international order, and eventhe meaning of Confucian civilization, they often employ Schmittian and Straussian conceptslike “the political,” “friend–enemy,” “state of exception,” “liberal education,” and “naturalright.” The very possibility of a genuine Chinese political theory is often thought to be tied tothe legacy of these two thinkers.This volume explores this complex phenomenon with a cross-cultural and interdisciplinaryapproach. The twelve essays in this volume are written from a range of perspectives by philosophers,political theorists, historians, and legal scholars from China, Germany, Taiwan,and the United States.

Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political examinesthe reception of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in China and Taiwan. The legacies of bothSchmitt, the German legal theorist and thinker who joined the Nazi party, and Strauss, theGerman-Jewish classicist and political philosopher who became famous after his emigrationto the United States, are highly controversial. Since the 1990s, however, these thinkers havehad a powerful resonance for Chinese scholars. Today, when Chinese intellectuals debate theChinese state, the future role of China in the world, the liberal international order, and eventhe meaning of Confucian civilization, they often employ Schmittian and Straussian conceptslike “the political,” “friend–enemy,” “state of exception,” “liberal education,” and “naturalright.” The very possibility of a genuine Chinese political theory is often thought to be tied tothe legacy of these two thinkers.This volume explores this complex phenomenon with a cross-cultural and interdisciplinaryapproach. The twelve essays in this volume are written from a range of perspectives by philosophers,political theorists, historians, and legal scholars from China, Germany, Taiwan,and the United States.

Tu Weiming zählt zu den renommiertesten chinesischen Philosophen. Sein 2018 auf dem Weltkongress für Philosophie gehaltener Vortrag über einen neuen Humanismus, Menschsein lernen ist die Krönung seines lebenslangen Bemühens, den Konfuzianismus in einen Dialog mit den spirituellen Traditionen der Welt zu bringen und die Herausforderungen zu durchdenken, denen sich das 21. Jahrhundert stellen muss. Tu strebt danach, menschliche Subjektivität im Lichte der konfuzianischen Tradition neu zu bestimmen. Auf dieser Grundlage entwirft er die Vision eines allumfassenden, dicht geknüpften Lebensnetzes, das über die vier sich in einer ständigen Kreisbewegung aufeinander beziehenden Aspekte »Selbst«, »Gemeinschaft«, »Erde« und »Himmel« auch eine ethische Perspektive eröffnet. Tus »geistiger Humanismus« soll dabei helfen, Egoismus, Ethnozentrismus, Nationalismus, aber auch Anthropozentrismus zu überwinden, denn der konfuzianische Übungsweg will den Menschen befähigen, »ein würdiges Gegenüber im kosmischen Prozess zu werden«. Wer sich mit gegenwärtigem Denken beschäftigen möchte, in globaler Perspektive und jenseits altbekannter europäischer Geisteswelten, kommt an Tu Weiming nicht vorbei.

»Wer gut zu gehen weiß, bleibt ohne Spuren.« Kai Marchal war 22, als er dieser daoistischen Weisheit folgend in den 1990ern mit der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn nach China reiste. Dieses Land verkörperte damals für ihn das radikal Andere, einen letzten Sehnsuchtsort jenseits der westlichen Lebensform. In unserer chaotischen Gegenwart ist China längst ins Zentrum der Welt gerückt; mit dem schleichenden Niedergang des Westens wird auch die neue Führungsmacht China immer wichtiger. Doch was wissen wir eigentlich über das chinesische Denken? Suchten Daoisten, Konfuzianer und Buddhisten »nur« nach Weisheit - oder verfolgten sie ein philosophisches Projekt, das uns auch heute noch helfen kann, ein gelingendes Leben zu führen? Welche neuen Perspektiven können uns Denker wie Laozi, Wang Bi oder Wang Yangming anbieten? Das Ergebnis von Kai Marchals langjährigem Ringen mit dem Gegenstand »China«, der sich uns wie kein anderer entzieht, ist ein Buch, das auf faszinierende Weise sehr unterschiedliche Genres miteinander verbindet: philosophische Einführung, literarischer Essay, Reisebericht, autobiografisches Bekenntnis.