Knowledge and action

facts and values in neo-confucianism

Bong-Ho Son

pp. 149-159

in: Facts and values, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

Whoever has tried to translate western philosophical writings, replete with technical terms, into an oriental language - or the other way around - will know that syntax, grammar, and especially words are incorrigibly culture-bound. Lin Yu-tang, more thoroughly acquainted with both cultural traditions, perhaps, than any other living person today, and deeply aware of the difficulties encountered in bridging them, said that if he were to write two- essays on the same morning, dealing with the same topic and expressing the same ideas, one in English and the other in Chinese, they would turn out quite differently. His thinking would follow different paths of imagination, of suggestion and association. "Men do not speak because they think; rather, they think because they speak."^l