The Dualistic Separation of Subject and Object in Traditional Western Philosophy

Basic Characteristics of Traditional Western Philosophy

Western philosophy, beginning with Socrates and Plato, created a philosophy in which the separation of subject and object (subject-object duality) was the dominant trend. Socrates, in discussing the question of truth, goodness, and beauty, argued that the concrete, realistically existing truth, goodness, and beauty are ever-changing, relative, and therefore unreal; only the concept of truth, goodness, and beauty is permanent, absolute, and real. Plato further developed Su's idea into "Idea Theory", in which the world is divided into "phenomenal" world and "Idea" world, with the former being fluid and unreal, and the latter being absolute, unchanging and the only real one. The former is fluid and unreal, while the latter is absolutely unchanging and uniquely real. Although the late Parker's self-criticism and revision of his "idea theory", put forward the "rescue phenomenon" problem, but also can not change his subject-object separation, the world of the general trend of philosophical dualism.

The metaphysics of subject-object dichotomy initiated by Socrates and Plato has become a complete form in modern times through the development and refinement of Descartes, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and others, and has long dominated the major philosophical doctrines of the Western philosophical world.

This traditional metaphysics of subject-object dichotomy has the following main features when analyzed specifically: first, it emphasizes human subjectivity. In the relationship between man and nature, emphasize the dominant and decisive role of man on nature. Bacon said: human knowledge and power to one. Descartes put forward the famous proposition "I think, therefore I am". According to Kant, man, through reason, goes to nature and, as a judge, forces nature to answer the questions he asks. Instead of man revolving around nature, nature revolves around man, which is called the "Copernican revolution". In Hegel's view, through the subject's and thinking's mobility, the contradiction between the subject and the object, between thinking and existence, is constantly overcome, and finally unity is achieved. In the relationship between human beings, he emphasized the freedom of human will and "self-determination". People living in society always have all kinds of connections with the social environment and its people, so everyone's thoughts and behaviors always have a certain relationship with these connections, but in the end, the final decision maker of one's own behaviors and thoughts is not outside of me, but lies in me. For example, Kant's practical reason that the real moral principle is not "other", but "self-discipline".

Second, it emphasizes mediation. Since traditional philosophy sees the world as a dichotomy, how can the two worlds (subject and object or mind and material world) communicate and be connected? So they emphasize the role of intermediary and bridge. Plato believed that through "imagination" ("guessing") to recognize the image of "actual things"; through "belief" ("believe") to recognize the image of "actual things"; and through "belief" ("believe") to recognize the image of "actual things". Plato believed that through "imagination" ("guessing") one recognizes images of "actual things"; through "belief" ("believing") one recognizes "actual things", i.e., the natural world (the material world), which he also called the "visible world". Recognizing the world of ideas through "reason" ("knowing") and "rationality" ("understanding"), he also calls it the "knowable world". "the intelligible world". In modern (17th century) philosophy there is a dispute between empiricism and solipsism, which is not only a methodological dispute about how to acquire knowledge, but also about what serves as an intermediary, a bridge, to unify subject and object. Empiricism advocates sensory experience as the intermediary (bridge), while materialism advocates rational thought as the intermediary (bridge). Hegel from the dialectical method, that the subject and object, thinking and existence from contradiction to unity process, must go through many intermediate links, through the role of intermediary in order to achieve, he vigorously opposed Schelling does not speak of the intermediary intuitionism, satirizing this method of understanding is "a kind of sudden excitement like a pistol firing".

Third, the role of reason is emphasized. The traditional metaphysics of subject-object separation emphasizes the subjectivity of human beings and the decisive and dominant role of the subject on the object, and thus gives human reason great significance and great power. Rationality is regarded as the essence of man, and "man is a rational animal" has become the classic definition of man in traditional Western philosophy. From the ancient Socrates and Plato, to the modern Kant, Hegel and Feuerbach, all of them take reason as the highest stage of human cognition, and Plato believes that only reason can recognize the "world of ideas", and the 17th-century philosophers represented by Bacon, Locke, Descartes, and Spinoza, etc., argued from different perspectives how people can recognize the essence and entity of things through Reason can recognize the essence and entity of things. Moreover, it became an important principle of 17th and 18th century philosophy to treat reason as a court of law, and everything has to go through the court of reason to decide whether it exists or not, and whether it is true or false. Hegel's philosophy also explains the significance of reason from the ontology, which is the root of everything and the "Nus" that drives the development of things; at the same time, he thinks that reason manipulates and dominates the process and law of the development of human society behind the scenes, and that all the activities of human beings are nothing but the realization of reason's purpose. This is what he called "rational cunning".