AHC: East Asian "Enlightenment"

It was thanks to the Qin Emperor who burned and killed scholars of the hundred school of thought. So confucianism legalism and taoism are just some of the surviving philosophies that were formed in that time period. Does that also mean that there is a possibility that China did indeed have some philosophy that was somewhat similar to the Enlightment? I mean they did have the logicians, which some compared to the greek logic and paradoxes
 
And your about to demonstrate why their is a massive problem in western culture of presuming its philosophy is extraordinary.

The foundation of Zen?
So the epistemological debates in India that existed prior to the Grecian development and have continued to the modern day?
Based on the Muslim contributions to methodological naturalism which combined Indian mathematic principles with Chinese experimental theory?
You mean Confucianism doesn't exist and/or was static?

Even if, and it's contestable, each of those fit the bill on a one by one basis, they are still occurring in disparate parts of the globe at times centuries apart. What I was arguing for is for those tenets to happen together in East Asia. For all your patronising tone, you brought up examples that very much were not East Asia, so you can maybe turn the smug down a notch.

And given the West in the period 1650-1950 saw a leap forward in science and invention greater than any other in the history of mankind, there must have been something special going on philosophically.
 
Just an idea that I have already had in my head that will require a very early POD going all the way back to the early Han, or perhaps even Qin dynasty: Have Taoism, instead of Confucianism be the dominant school of thought in Chinese philosophy.

Compared to the Qin dynasty's Legalism which advocated for the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of an all-powerful state; Or the Confucianism of the other dynasties that followed, which was dedicated to installing a highly educated and cultured class of bureaucracy to rule over the masses; Taoism puts the individual and his happiness as the key unit of society, with the purpose of the state being to permit the individual to flourish and achieve happiness.

This is obviously a massive simplification of the philosophies. But if Taoism somehow manages to become the dominant/mainstream school of thought, you will get the ground work for something resembling the liberalism of the Western world developing in China centuries ahead of OTL. And since Chinese philosophy along with almost everything else from China greatly influenced the cultural development for the rest of East and South East Asia, the seeds for an Eastern 'Enlightenment' can be planted even if China eventually returns to it's Confucianian roots.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 PODs:

  1. Have Qin Shi Huang's infamous purge against the rival philosophies of legalism do more damages to Confucianism, while somehow have more Taoist writings and thinkers survive. So that when the Qin dynasty falls, Taoism will be the main philosophy that is 'laying around' for the new dynasty (Either Han or perhaps some other dynasty due to the butterfly from the POD) to pick up. Perhaps even as a direct reaction to the harsh and deeply unpopular authoritarian legalist reforms of the Qin dynasty, by embracing individualist thinking.
  2. During the Tang dynasty, instead of the Neo-Confucianism reformation, have the adoption of the imperial exams system be based on Taoist thought instead. Perhaps with something along the lines of how it promotes the virtues of individual achievement and handwork, allowing exceptional individuals to rise to the top though merit and self-improvement.
It did—twice.During early Han Dynasty and during Cao Wei and the Jin Dynasty.
 
Even if, and it's contestable, each of those fit the bill on a one by one basis, they are still occurring in disparate parts of the globe at times centuries apart.
Something which also describes the enlightenment (except for the disparate parts of the globe... With the exception of India (at a time when indian and chinese philosophers travelled back and forth), all were referencing china).
What I was arguing for is for those tenets to happen together in East Asia. For all your patronising tone, you brought up examples that very much were not East Asia, so you can maybe turn the smug down a notch.
Again, with the exception of India, a subcontinent with regular participation in east Asian philosophy (even to the point where Japan's Shintoism incorporates Hindu gods and philosophy), I was describing traditions born in China.

And given the West in the period 1650-1950 saw a leap forward in science and invention greater than any other in the history of mankind, there must have been something special going on philosophically.
Not necessarily.
Philosophy Tube actually just released a video (I think yesterday as of when I type this) about how many of the ideas of the enlightenment were present in Africa and separately developed. When Europeans occupied lands in Asia, Asian philosophers during the enlightenment period were not responding to enlightenment ideals as if they were unusual, but were either contributing to them and/or critiquing the European application of those ideas.

If anything, the Enlightenment era doesn't so much relate to any kind of philosophical exceptionalism as much as it does that changing technological conditions give greater opportunities for wider dissemination of those ideas and that cultures that dominate other cultures make it harder for the dominated to benefit from those conditions.
 
- an emphasis on rejecting all tradition and orthodoxy
- a belief in developing knowledge from first principles
- a codified scientific method to examine the natural world
- support for fundamental restructuring of politics and society for the betterment of all people

Sounds somewhat like Mohism.
 
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