Dawei Pan

During the past several decades, the world has witnessed the increased awareness of the significance of philosophical investigations into the domains of life science and healthcare, as illustrated by the “Philosophy and Medicine” (P&M) series by Springer. Among the almost 150 volumes in the series, there has been a special outpouring of interest regarding East Asian contributions to bioethics. Initiated in 1999, the P&M Asian subseries primarily aimed to provide readers a way to understand moral and cultural issues involved in healthcare, particularly in East Asian contexts. Over time, it has revealed an intriguing perspective on the development of a culturally sensitive approach to bioethics known as the family-based approach. This approach becomes particularly relevant in an era of growing cross-cultural exchanges, communication, and global political tensions, like the one we are currently experiencing.

Online classes have brought with them challenges, as well as opportunities, for philosophy and philosophical education. The democratization of interactions, the creative tension between anonymity and publicity, and the virtualization and centralization of information that compel participants to focus on the mobility of ideas together make up what the present article calls e-philosophy. The article presents three issues essential to teaching philosophy via the internet: building a framework for communication, syllabus design, and engaging participants. Two major problems specific to China, where the author teaches and works as a philosopher of science, and those related to philosophical education in the internet era in general, are discussed.

Medical argumentation in non-Western societies has attracted little attention. In line with the pragma-dialectical approach to the study of argumentation, this article identifies a prototypical argumentative pattern in Chinese medical consultations. In addition to institutional preconditions, whose relevance to the argumentative pattern has been well cited, a factor that may be equally important has remained unnoticed: the preference for certain drugs, treatments or therapeutic measurements on the basis of folk interpretations of medical phenomena in individual ethnic groups. These preferences may be seen as cultural preferences in the medical domain. In this paper, a prototypical argumentative pattern of Chinese medical consultations is provided. Two levels of the pattern are distinguished and discussed: a basic argumentative pattern as presented in the pragmatic-dialectical approach and its extensions due to cultural preferences as well as institutional constraints. Illustrated by an exemplary analysis on the basis of empirical data collected from Chinese consulting rooms, the impact of cultural preferences on physicians’ strategic maneuvering in argumentation is identified and recognized. It is argued that the existence and impact of cultural preferences require attention in medical argumentation.

Unlike similar works, Xingxue Cushu 性學觕述 by the Italian Jesuit missionary Giulio Aleni sought to deliver the Christian doctrine into China by introducing Western medicine. The conflict between the Christian concept of the soul and the traditional psychic concept in China made the task difficult. Scholasticism rejects the idea that an individual’s soul may be physically divided or localized, whereas the Chinese tradition largely assumes the contrary and regards the heart as the center of one’s psychic powers or vitality. Aleni addressed this conflict by reducing the mind to the function of the brain for sensitive memory. Chinese physicians accepted Aleni’s concept of brain-related memory. However, his claim of an immaterial soul was ignored, and the Western connection between brain and memory was misinterpreted and subjected to Chinese cardiocentrism; thus, the physically centered psychic concept that underlies Chinese philosophy persisted.

If reaching out to others is often difficult and needing both kindness and skill, it is a tremendous achievement not only to succeed in the endeavor but to win the love and respect of others as well. This was the case with Giulio Aleni. One of the most respected missionaries since Matteo Ricci and Ricci's successor in the Chinese Jesuit Province, the Italian-born Father was referred to by his followers as the "Confucius from the West" : Ai Rulue, whose other name was Siji, was an Italian. He came to China in 1613. He was invited by Xu Guangqi to Shanghai, and then moved to Zhejiang to preach. Later he entered Fujian at the invitation of Ye...