Abstract:

In modern Chinese philosophy Professor Zhang Dainian was an advocate of "analytical materialism." His notion of "ultimate reality" (ben ti), however, was different from that of philosophers in Qinghua School of Realism who emphasized the importance of logical analysis on the one hand, and different from that of his contemporary New Materialists on the other. His notion of "ultimate reality" is a unity of principle (li) and matter (wu), and a unity of "the ultimate" (ben) and "the ideal" (zhi). It is a creative synthesis of various conceptions of ultimate reality in Chinese and Western philosophies. It reflects his attempt to transcend both Qinghua School of Realism and New Materialism.

Key words: Zhang Dainian, notion of ultimate reality, Qinghua School of Realism, New Materialism