Jin Yuelin
摘要
This chapter introduces and examines the philosophy of Jin Yuelin 金岳霖 (1895–1984). Jin Yuelin was the best-known analytical philosopher in China in the first half of the twentieth century. He constructed his own metaphysics and epistemology mainly by the method of logical analysis. He was among very few Chinese philosophers who were directly engaged in the discussion of some major issues in Western philosophical traditions. His philosophy doesn’t belong to any Chinese philosophical school although it does adopt some Chinese philosophical terms such as “Dao” and embraces part of its traditional meaning. He took philosophical investigation as the pursuit of universal truth which is neither merely for Westerners nor the Chinese but for all humankind. Overall, he was a philosopher in China but not a philosopher within Chinese philosophical traditions. From methodology to substance, Jin’s philosophy is more like those in the modern West than those in China. The main significance of his philosophy lies in bringing modern Western philosophical discourses and debates into China and participating in philosophical conversations in major Western traditions.