Taoism and ethics

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Taoism and ethics

1. Wu Wei (actionless action)
2. Virtue (te) in Taoist perspective
3. Intellectual humility as an ethical virtue

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1. Wu Wei Actionless Action

• The Way of heaven helps and does not harm. The
  Way for humans is to act without
  contention.TTC, 81
• Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is
  nothing left undone. "The tao of heaven does not
  strive, and yet it overcomes. It does not speak,
  and yet it is answered....The world is ruled by
  non-action, not by action.TTC, 37

3

• The sage never strives for the great, and
  thereby the great is achieved.---TTC, 34
• Do non-doing, strive for non-striving, savor the
  flavorless, regard the small as important, make
  much of little, repay enmity with virtue.TTC,
  63

4

• Wu wei is one of the most difficult and leat
  understood doctrines of Lao Tze. First, the
  ontological Tao is said to be wu sei-natures
  course is effortless. Sounds paradoxical and
  meaningless. How should we interpret it?
• Taoists respond to situations passively and yet
  appropriately, by following the art of letting
  nature take its course.

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• The holistic thinking the Taoist promotes can be
  seen to support proper respect for other living
  things it promotes seeing the natural world as a
  holistic system so that what affects one thing
  affects all. Balance and things like the scenario
  of weather in the movie The Day After Tomorrow
• Taoists believe that "people are compassionate by
  nature...left to their own devices they will
  show this compassion without expecting a reward."
  

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• On third quote, from Zhuangzi, relate 1)
  effortless b/c habitual (and so automatic or
  natural to act so),
• 2) uncontrived rather than forced or
  deliberative) responding to every interest.
  James on satisfying every relevant interest (what
  fills himhis moral perception he relies on
  something like wu wei may be necessary for that
  Jamesian ideal to occur.

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• READ FROM ZHUNAGZI Emptiness and stillness,
  calm and indifference, quiescence, Doing Nothing,
  are the even level of heaven and earth, the
  utmost reach of the Way and the Power
  thereforethe sage finds rest in them. At rest he
  empties, emptying he is filled, and what fills
  him sorts itself out. Emptying he is still, in
  stillness he is moved, and when he moves he
  succeeds.The Zhuangzi

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• So emptying the mind isnt just ignore principles
  and to do whatever comes handy it means
  increaing ones moral sensitivity Diminish the
  role of knowledge and precedent, of deliberation
  and custom, of thinking and planning, and the
  mind of the virtuous person will better reflect
  the morally relevant aspects of the situation and
  the interests that need to be responded-to. A
  CARE ETHIC?