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Anglo-American philosophy in Taiwan: a centennial review

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Abstract

This article systematically surveys the history of Anglo-American philosophy in Taiwan since the late nineteenth century. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it argues that (i) pragmatism remained influential given the dominance of continental philosophy in Japanese colonized Taiwan, where the universal values assumed by pragmatists were used to resist the Empire’s ideology, (ii) after WWII, immigrated Chinese scholars brought in more novelty to Taiwanese philosophy than the Vienna circle diasporas brought to their Anglo-American counterparts, in which liberal scholars’ emphasis on science and democracy challenged Chiang’s dictatorship and Chinese nationalism, and (iii) analytic philosophy thrived with the advance of democratizing in the 1980s, which, in turn, diversified the philosophy in 1990s Taiwan. Accordingly, Anglo-American philosophy was never confined to the academic ivory tower but had positive impacts on Taiwan’s centennial social transformation.

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Notes

  1. 1895 was the start of the Japanese colonization through which Western philosophy was introduced, and 1996 was the launch of the Taiwan Philosophical Association (TPA).

  2. For example, the history of the Si̍t-chûn Movement and Marxist Buddhism have recently been investigated (Yen, 2016, 2018; Hung, 2019, 2022).

  3. For example, see Yang Hsing-ting’s (1909 − 1987) “Infinite Negation and Creativity” (Yang, 1934), Hung Yao-Hsün’s (1903 − 1986) “The Philosophy of Tragedy” (Hung, 1934), and Chen Shao-Hsing’s (1906 − 1966) “On Hegel’s civil society” (Chen, 1936).

  4. For example, see Tseng Tien-tsung’s (1910 − 2007) A Preliminary Study of the Existential Philosophy (Tseng, 1934) and N̂g Chiong-hui’s (1914 − 1988) “Disturbed Morality” (N̂g, 1935).

  5. See Lin’s (1924) “Social Advances and School Education.”.

  6. See Lin’s (1929a) Public Education in Formosa under the Japanese Administration: A Historical and Analytical Study of the Development and the Cultural Problems.

  7. See Huang’s (1994) paper presented at the Proceedings of the National Science Council (Part C: Humanities and Social Sciences).

  8. See Li (1907). After Huxley’s “Evolution and Ethics.” Reprinted 2004, in Huang Chun-Chieh, Lee Ming-huei, and Li Hanji, eds., Complete Works of Li Chunsheng, vol. 4. Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc.

  9. Since 1946, Chiang’s occupying forces initiated Chinizafication by transforming Taiwanese people into Chinese. Japan’s “poisoned” influences were removed to “purify” the people (Chen, 2008). The Japanese and later, Taiwanese languages were banned in public. Thus, Taiwanese philosophers had to learn Mandarin as their fifth language, which seriously affected their post-war works and caused an entire generation to suffer from aphasia (Hung & Deng, 2018). The cultural conflicts and China’s corruption soon caused the February 28 incident—the massacre following the Taiwanese uprising suppressed by the Chinese army in 1947. In the incident and subsequent white terror, philosophers were murdered (e.g., Lin Mosei and Gao Zhide) or tortured (Chang Dong-fang), and their works were banned (e.g., Tiu’s A Review on the Philosophy of Confucius, Vrabec, 2006 and Lin, 2016) . The incident also led to the exodus of a dozen philosophers, and those who stayed in their homeland maintained a low profile in the academies (Hung, 2019).

  10. .See Chen Duxiu (1919). “Statement of Defense for the Criminal Case of New Youth.”.

  11. See Chen Ruey-lin.

  12. These people included Li Ri-Zhang, Tien Chiu-chin, Chiu I-jen, and Liao Jen-I. Among them, a former philosophy student, Tēnn Lâm-iông, committed suicide by self-immolation to fight for freedom of expression.

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  1. Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica No. 128, Sec. 2, Academia Rd., Nankang District, Taipei, 115, Taiwan

    Tzu-Wei Hung

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Hung, TW. Anglo-American philosophy in Taiwan: a centennial review. AJPH 1, 19 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-022-00025-3

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