Abstract:

“Generating” has three basic connotations, that is, creativity, process and vitality. However, if taking generating as its foundation, “generating” ethics and philosophy has to face three paradoxes: first, its creativity means creating something from something rather than nothing; second, its process is not merely a process but a process with being; third, its vitality stresses cultivation rather than nature. Chinese ethics and philosophy, characterized by “producing” through the unity of knowing and acting, is different from “generating”. Chinese ethics emphasizes “making” instead of “thinking” or “awakening”; it is neither from “rational thinking” of reason nor from perceptual “dispositions”. With its adherence to practice, it goes beyond the contention between “knowing-that” and “knowing-how”.

Key words: generating, “generating” ethics, Chinese ethics, unity of knowing and acting, knowing-that, knowing-how, to do or not to do