Daoism

1
Daoism

• Laozi ?? (Lao Tzu, Lao Tan ??)
• Dao De Jing ??? (Tao Te Ching)
• Shen Dao ?? (around 395-315 B.C.)
• Shenzi ??
• Zhuangzi ?? (Chuang Tzu) (bt. 399-295 B.C.)
• Zhuangzi ?? (Chuang Tzu)
• Philosophical Taoism ?? and Religious Taoism ??

2

• I. Shen Daos Fatalism
• 1. Abandon knowledge and discard self
• 2. Follow the inevitable and be indifferent
• to natural kinds
• 3. Different kinds of determinism (doctrine of
  ming ?)
• Causal determinism (everything is determined by
• its cause)
• Logical determinism (tautology -- what will be
  will be)
• 4. The problem of free will and determinism
• Hard determinism (free will is an illusion)
• Liberterians (there is free will, so determinism
  is false)
• Soft determinism (determinism and free will are
  compatible)
• 5. Shen Daos position most like logical
  determinism
• 6. Shen Daos Daoist Paradox If we follow his
  Dao, we violate it

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• II. Laozis Theory of Language
• 1. The true dao cannot be named (described)
• 2. All distinctions are conventional. They limit
  our vision, arouse desires, and cause conflicts
• 3. Wu Wei ??, or action-by-non-action. Dao Wu
  Wei (chpt. 6, 7, 8, 43, 51). Wei is action
  guided by social forms of knowledge (p.74)

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• III. Zhuangzi
• His solution to the Daoist paradox
• 1. All distinctions are relative to
  perspectives there is no absolute authority
• 2. But since it is also natural to make
  distinctions, lets be flexible, live through
  them and not be blocked by some fixed ones
• The notion of through Tong ? is the
  solution

For example, what is wrong with Mencius? (p. 83)
1. In thinking there must be some deep
authority within the self 2. In choosing the 4
heart-mind as the authority 3. In selecting a
method of cultivation by his judgment of who is
and is not a sage
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• Daily One-minute Paper
• 1. What is the big point you learned in class
  today?
• 2. What is the main, unanswered question you
  leave class with today?