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Neo-Essentialism: Regulation and Commonality in Subjective World
来源:Lecture Notes in Economics, Management and Social Sciences, Vol.60 (July 15-16,2023), pp.385-392. | 作者:Yong Duan | 发布时间: 2023-08-18 | 7138 次浏览 | 分享到:
Abstract: What we call national character is not an abstract thing that exists in the objective world, but understanding that is abstractly summarized after we observe the thoughts and behaviors of one by one specific person. Abstract things can transcend particular time and space and apply to a very large scale, so abstract things have great value. Regulation and commonality are abstract things. There are two kinds of regulation and commonality: one is in the objective world and one in the subjective world. Regulation and commonality in the objective world are not the source of knowledge, nor are they the criteria for testing truth. Theories about the regulation and commonality of the objective world are dogmatic. Essence offen refers to abstract regulation and commonality. Dialectical Dualism holds that the essence in the objective world has no value, while the essence in the subjective world has high value and is the main contents of human civilization and culture. The main task of philosophical Ontology is to establish the essence in the subjective world, including the Origin, Noumenon, regulations, concepts, commonalities, world views and so on. This is the Neo-essentialism.
Key words: Ontology; Essentialism; Essence; Anti-essentialism; Abstract

The Anti-essentialism in modern and contemporary philosophy is wrong to oppose all essences. We should only oppose essences in the objective world, not in the subjective world. Anti-essentialism pours out the dirty water and the child after bath, while Neo-essentialism advocates pouring out the dirty water and leaving the child behind.

It is difficult to create correct philosophical theories. Although all philosophical theories in history have mistakes, they provide the foundation for creating correct philosophical theories. The creation of a correct philosophical theory requires the foundation of three aspects: dogmatic Metaphysics, Epistemology and Meta-ethics. Only after these three aspects have been fully developed can Metaphysics be rebuilt. The subject of this Metaphysics is Neo-essentialism.

The essence believed by the old and the new Essentialism is completely different, so the truth view of the old and new Essentialism will be completely different. New Essentialism holds that essence is artificial and therefore fallible. In this way, essence is not a supreme principle of action or a standard of truth, but a tool by which we understand and transform the world. Neo-essentialism is pragmatism, the ultimate principle of behavior is value maximization, the ultimate standard of truth is usefulness, which means valuable. Value is embodied in practice, so the standard of truth is practice. The old Essentialism regarded the Dao Li of the objective world as supreme, so it must take these objective Dao Li as essence, and take these essence as the ultimate principle of action and the ultimate standard of truth. If these principles contradict people's interests, then we must preserve objective principles and destroy human desires. All kinds of man-eating legal institutions in history were the inevitable result of the development of old Essentialism. Old Essentialism was also the theoretical source of many religions, such as Christianity from Plato's Essentialism, Daoism from Laozi's Essentialism.

5.3 Existence Precedes Essence