This negative method of Taoism was reinforced by Buddhism, as we have seen. The combination of Taoism and Buddhism resulted in Ch' anism, which I should like to call a philosophy of silence. If one understands and realizes the meaning and significance of silence, one gains something of the object of metaphysics.
In the West, Kant may be said to have used the negative method of meta-physics. In his Critique of Pure Reason, he found the unknowable, the noumenon. To Kant and other Western philosophers, because the unknow-able is unknowable, one can therefore say nothing about it, and so it is bet-ter to abandon metaphysics entirely and stop at epistemology. But to those who are accustomed to the negative method, it is taken for granted that, since the unknowable is unknowable, we should say nothing about it. The business of metaphysics is not to say something about the unknowable, but only to say something about the fact that the unknowable is unknowable. When one knows that the unknowable is unknowable, one does know, after all, something about it. On this point, Kant did a great deal.
The great metaphysical systems of all philosophy, whether negative or pos-itive in their methodology, have crowned themselves with mysticism. The negative method is essentially that of mysticism. But even in the cases of Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza, who used the positive method at its best, the climaxes of their systems are all of a mystical nature. When the philosopher in the Republic beholds and identifies himself with the Idea of the Good, or the philosopher in the Metaphysics with God thinking on thinking, or the philosopher in the Ethics finds himself "seeing things from the point of view
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of eternity" and enjoying the "intellectual love of God, what can they do but be silent? Is their state not better described by such phrases as "not one, "not many, "not not-one, not not-many ?
Thus the two methods do not contradict but rather complement each other. A perfect metaphysical system should start with the positive method and end with the negative one. If it does not end with the negative method, it fails to reach the final climax of philosophy. But if it does not start with the positive method, it lacks the clear thinking that is essential for philosophy. Mysticism is not the opposite of clear thinking, nor is it below it. Rather, it is beyond it. It is not anti-rational; it is super-rational.
In the history of Chinese philosophy, the positive method was never fully developed; in fact, it was much neglected. Therefore, Chinese philosophy has lacked clear thinking, which is one of the reasons why it is marked by sim-plicity. Lacking clear thinking, its simplicity has been quite naive. Its sim-plicity as such is commendable, but its naivete must be removed through the exercise of clear thinking. Clear thinking is not the end of philosophy, but it is the indispensable discipline that every philosopher needs. Certainly it is what Chinese philosophers need. On the other hand, the history of Western philosophy has not seen a full development of the negative method. It is the combination of the two that will produce the philosophy of the future.
A Ch an story describes how a certain teacher used to stick out his thumb when he was asked to explain the Buddhist Too. On such occasions, he would simply remain silent, but would display his thumb. Noticing this, his boy attendant began to imitate him. One day the teacher saw him in this act, and quick as lightning chopped off the boy s thumb. The boy ran away cry-ing. The teacher called him to come back, and just as the boy turned his head, the teacher again stuck out his own thumb. Thereupon the boy re-ceived Sudden Enlightenment.
Whether this story is true or not, it suggests the truth that before the negative method is used, the philosopher or student of philosophy must pass through the positive method, and before the simplicity of philosophy is reached, he must pass through its complexity.
One must speak very much before one keeps silent.
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