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urn:uuid:f353c08f-8cdb-47b9-9ca2-56782942878a 03 15 9781805114802 00 EB E101 10 01 01 The Art of Becoming Infinite Mou Zongsan’s Vertical Rethinking of Self and Subjectivity 1 A01 Gabriella Stanchina Gabriella Stanchina holds a Phd in Western Philosophy from the Catholic University of Milan, and a PhD in Chinese Philosophy from Fudan University, Shanghai. Her research area is Chinese-Western Comparative Philosophy, with particular focus on the problem of self-consciousness in Mou Zongsan and Novalis. Her publications include Il limite generante. Analisi delle Fichte Studien di Novalis [The generating boundary. Analysis of Novalis’ Fichte Studien] (2002), and several comparative articles including: ‘Zhi 知as unceasing dynamism and practical effort. The common root of knowledge and action in Wang Yangming and Peter Sloterdijk’ (Wenxue Journal 2015), ‘The butterfly dream as “creative dream”: dreaming and subjectivity in Zhuangzi and María Zambrano’ (Asian Philosophy 2018), and ‘Naming the unnamable: a comparison between Wang Bi’s Commentary on the Laozi and Derrida's Khōra’ (Dao, 2020). 01 eng 00 368 03 04 B5234.M674 23 Mou Zongsan 10 PHI003000 23 Philosophy 23 Asian Studies 23 Chinese philosophy of the self 10 PHI026000 23 Comparative philosophy 10 PHI016000 23 Moral self-cultivation 10 PHI005000 10 REL000000 23 Subjectivity and self-consciousness 23 Eastern vs. Western philosophical models 01 06 03 00 Mou Zongsan is arguably the most important Chinese philosopher of the twentieth century. This work delves into the philosopher's exploration of self and subjectivity, setting Mou Zongsan’s theories against Western paradigms. Mou contrasts Western ‘horizontal’ model, based on the separation of subject and object, and aimed at cognitive enhancement, with the ‘vertical’ view dominant in the Confucian and Daoist tradition. The vertical model has, at its core, a practical-performative interpretation of the subject, based on the moral self-cultivation. This spiritual cultivation enables the finite human being to ‘become infinite,’ embodying the original unlimited moral mind that constitutes the Self and the universe. In addressing fundamental questions of self-consciousness and self-identity, the book contextualizes Mou's philosophy within contemporary discussions in neuroscience and cognitive science. By placing Mou's ideas in dialogue with Western thought—examining thinkers like Husserl, Kant, Hegel, and Lévinas—as well as with Daoist and Confucian vision of mind, this work opens a pathway to understanding selfhood beyond purely epistemological boundaries. This book will be of interest to readers and scholars interested in the contemporary debate about mind and the Self, as well as those intrigued by the new horizons opened by a cross-cultural Western-Chinese approach to subjectivity. 04 00 INTRODUCTION A Vertical Rethinking of the Self: The Significance of This Study Mou Zongsan’s Life and Works Chapter-by-Chapter Overview 1. THE QUESTION OF SUBJECTIVITY 1.1 The True Face of Mount Lu 1.2 Contemporary Perspectives on Self 1.3 Comparative Perspectives 2. MOU ZONGSAN AND THE CRITIQUE OF THE COGNITIVE MIND 2.1 Towards a New Philosophy of Mind 2.2 Structure and Significance of the Critique of the Cognitive Mind 2.3 Perception and Apperception 2.4 Self-Consciousness and Psychological States 2.5 The Problem of Self 2.6 From the Physiological Self to the Logical Self 2.7 Self-Consciousness and Meaning 2.8 The Oscillation between Self-Limitation and Springing Out (跳起) 2.9 The Mind of the Quiet Shining (Jizhaoxin 寂照心) 2.10 Toward the Transcendent Mind: The Meaning and Use of Zi 自 3. THE “DIAPHANOUS SUBJECT” IN DAOIST THOUGHT 3.1 Daoism as the Metaphysics of the State of Mind 3.2 Jingjie as Spiritual State and Hodological Space 3.3 Withdrawing and Progressing: Western Subject versus Daoist Subject 3.4 The Three-Step Dialectics of Daoism 3.5 The Daoist Subjectivity According to Mou 3.6 The Diaphanous Subject 3.7 Self-Awareness and Trans-consciousness 3.8 Priority of the Sense of Sight 3.9 Subject, Ancestor, Host 3.10 Diaphanous Subject and Thin Subject 4. CONSTITUTIVE MIND AND CONSTITUTIVE NATURE: THE MORAL SUBJECT IN CONFUCIANISM 4.1 Confucianism and “Authentic Subjectivity” 4.2 Freedom and Indeterminacy 4.3 The Performative Subject 4.4 The Subject as Incipience and Origin 4.5 Constitutive Mind and Constitutive Nature 4.6 Subjectivity and Interiority 4.7 Conclusion: The Child in the Well 5. SELF-LIMITATION OF THE MORAL SELF AS KENOSIS 5.1 Kenosis: History of a Concept 5.2 Paradoxes of Self-Limitation 5.3 Abyss and Sinkhole: Self-Limitation as Sinking 5.4 Kenosis as Alienation: Hegel and Mou 5.5 Kenosis as “Making Space for the Other”: Tzimtzum and Lévinas 5.6 Tremor and Awakening: Mou and Lévinas CONCLUSIONS: FACETS OF SELF ACROSS CULTURES The Contemplative Subject in Western Culture: Interiority, Reflection, Solitude The Confucian Moral Subject in Mou’s Thought: Rethinking the Concepts of Interiority and Reflection Loneliness and “Vigilance in Solitude” Differences between Chinese and Western Culture: From “What Is a Self?” to “How to Become an Authentic Self?” BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Open Book Publishers 01 Open Book Publishers 04 01 20250127 02 WORLD 06 15 9781805114772 06 15 9781805114789 06 15 9781805114796 06 15 9781805114819 06 15 9781805114802 WORLD 09 Open Book Publishers 20 02 5.99 GBP WORLD