The Late Philosophy of Traditional
Chinese Medicine and its Implications for
The Proper Role of Contemporary
Biotechnology
Lo, Ping-cheung
Director, Centre for Applied Ethics
Professor, Department of Religion and Philosophy
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), even in modern time, does not rely on high technology. This is partly due to TCM's worldview in which the oneness of human beings with nature is of paramount importance. But this non-reliance on high technology does not prevent TCM thinkers from recognizing that healing is still an artificial act. A philosophical justification for this artificiality within the worldview of human-nature oneness is needed. Such philosophical justifications became more frequent in the Confucianized medicine manuals of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1644, 1644-1911 C.E.). This paper surveys and analyzes these seldom-discussed medical-philosophical writings and attempts to articulate a representative Confucian philosophical justification for “human intervention into nature” in the practice of TCM. Both the necessity and the moral limits of this intervention will be noted. I shall then argue that such a worldview of “limited human intervention into nature” is significantly different from that of the modern West since Francis Bacon, which informs some contemporary Western enthusiastic advocate of the genetic enhancement of human beings. This model will then serve illustrating an Asian way of thinking about science, technology, and values which is very different from a significant western paradigm.