Even those historians of Chinese thought, who are capable of both masterly analyses and great synthetic surveys of pre-modern Chinese philosophy, such an Anne Cheng, author of The history of Chinese thought, mostly remain in the grip of enduring stereotypes about Chinese language and Chinese letters. This is true despite the fact that old Chinese linguistics has progressed in the last 50 years at an unforeseen rate, and practically no experts on that language fail to take these advances seriously. At issue, above all, are the immensely popular analyses of characters, which authors treat as the path to uncovering the etymology of a given concept under research. Emancipation from written characters is, it would seem, a basic precondition for a better understanding of language, including the lexicon of philosophical concepts. This article aims to give a broad acccount of the inadequacy of character-etymology and, in contrast to this method, to describe which direction we should take if we wish to understand the conceptual apparatus of ancient Chinese thinkers., Lukáš Zádrapa., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
This study aims to interpret Mencius' political thinking taking as the starting point his doctrine of human nature. Each individual is capable of the moral self-cultivation of his or her innately good human nature, but in this task the individual requires adequate conditions and education. Political power is able to ensure this (and it is, indeed, one of its main asks to do so), but it can also, on the contrary, contribute, in a fundamental way, to the decadence of the state and society. The result of inadequate and ineffective application of political power is a growing crisis in society, especially in the area of inter-personal relations and moral conduct. Mencius' ideal is a relatively small and effective state that looks after its inhabitants and which does not unduly intervene in the social organism. War is understood, by him, as a great evil which is justifiably used only when putting-down an uprising or in self-defence. Generally, Mencius' political thought is characterized by the thought that the virtuous ruler will have, by dint of his strength of character, not only spiritual but also purely practical political successes., Stanislav Myšička., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii