ABSTRACT
Yin Haiguang (殷海光) and Feng Qi (冯契), as two modern philosophers in “the period after the May Fourth Movement,” were both students of the philosopher Jin Yuelin (金岳霖), but they are very different with regard to their political ideas and their academic approaches. In politics, one of them chose the Kuomintang (KMT), and the other the Communist Party; in academic orientation, one chose modern Western empiricist liberalism, the other Marxism. However, in the end both came to focus on the theory of freedom, and became two typical thinkers on each side of the Taiwan Straits who were concerned with the problem of freedom. Seemingly, Yin Haiguang’s choice of liberalism based on individualism and his fierce criticism of the socialist ideal of the Communist Party are totally in opposition, like water to fire, to the social ideal of Feng Qi who chose Marxist theory. This chapter argues that regarding social ideals and their intellectual approaches to them in the late years of their lives, there is something commensurable between them to be found, that is: an ideal society must be founded on respect for individual freedom so that individuals can fully develop their capacity and personality in society. By comparing the two thinkers who are so different in personality and academic approach and with regard to the commensurability of their ideals of freedom, this chapter will try to contribute to the construction of a theory of freedom in modern China in the hope that some valuable inspiration will be gained from thinking about it.
