Certainty and Uncertainty

Westerners, by observing their philosophy, art and literature, can be found to devote their much wisdom to seeking after certainty from too many uncertainties while Chinese wisdom,to uncertainties from certainty. Plato,whose philosophy exercises so fundamental an impact on the western mind that the philosophy after his is but an annotation to his, put forward the concept of universal, which in Chinese is generally translated "共相"，the certainty the greatest philosopher has sought. He started a tradition. The goal of western philosophy is to seek after certainty. Other philosophers who were born before or after Plato devoted themselves to it, though they held quite different philosophical opinions, even complete opposite to his. Pythagoras claims that everything is but numbers which precisely dominate the universe. Atom of Democritus is his certainty and mind is Anaxagoras' when he says mind is the source of all motion. Absolute being is the central theme of western philosophy. This absolute being, for some philosophers, is God, for another is nature or a transcendental being unknownble.Needless to say, Science, of which the mission is to seek after certainty called scientific theory or principles, is the fruit of such philosophy. When Descartes exquisitely proves "I think therefore I am", he breaks down the edifice of his predecessors with suspicion that the certainty their philosophy seeks after hasn't achieved, so he needs to build the edifice with a completely new foundation from the first brick. Anyway, he doesn't forget the goal of his philosophy is to seek after certainty: he proves the existence of God .

If you compare the western musical instruments with the Chinese one, you will agree with me. Western musical instruments are made for certainty while Chinese musical instruments are made for uncertainty. Try to compare piano and erhu, for instance. A key sounds the same whoever strikes it while the string sounds differently even the same person presses it. The former is with certainty and the latter, uncertainty. The same is true of painting. The western paintings are generally vivid portrayal of details while Chinese paintings are freehand brushwork.Again, the former is with certainty and the latter, uncertainty.