Another excellent article from 1999.
According to Tu Wei-ming, 'the most creative minds in China are the action philosophers or action intellectuals involved in the dynamic process of building China'.
So, we might ask what have they achieved since 1999? Who are the 'action philosophers' ?
Anything like Western ones - who are they again ? And what are their achievements ?
Does it help to divide philosophers into either Chinese or Western ?
Tu Wei-ming suggests 2 requirements for any communication between 2 different cultural-philosophical traditions:
1. Open-mindedness
2. Pyschological preparedness in terms of sympathy. True sympathy requires critical reflection.
I would say that 2. is the same as the Principle of Charity.
He suggests that people need to want to get into the material not for immediate pragmatic reasons but because there is something intrinsically valuable. This allows us to move into the cultural universe. The philosophical dimensions asking questions of how the mind functions. What are the deep commitments of our society. The highest aspirations. The deepest fears.
We also need to take into account other disciplines in the humanities, like literature and history. Together they are 'most immediate to our own self reflexivity.
'Philosophy teaches us how to think and reflect upon our own reflection'.