All Is Well in the Great Mess. Huizi and Zhuangzi about gourds; the story of Cook Ding (sometimes called Butcher Ding); and the story of Wheelwright Pian. 3099067 17With Zhuangzi, on the other hand, it is often not clear what exactly the point of a story is nor what position Zhuangzi himself might be criticizing or advancing. In fact, in Zhuangzis case, the featured voices are often non-human. Being in the forest industry, I know that a crooked tree is not suitable for making standard commodity lumber products, but it can make high quality decorative products which feature its natural beauty and individuality. Indianapolis: Hackett. Zhuangzi and the Happy Fish Dialogue. Chuang-Tzu: The Inner Chapters. The specific type of fiction that Western philosophers use is often called a thought experiment. For one, the hypothetical thought experiment involves a situation or type of person that is often simplified and underdescribed, meaning we might not know in the imagined case what the right thing to do is. His language did not hit his target the intent to make sense of things. This suggests that Zhuangzi saw Hui Shi as caught in a paradox. In Les pres du systme Taoste. Lin, Yutang , trans. What a habit, to obliterate possibility and potential in the mind out of bitterness and arrogance. Emotions That Do Not Move: Zhuangzi and Stoics on Self-Emerging Feelings. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 14.4: 521544. Zhuangzi - Chapter 1 (Carefree Living) - Huizi's Giant Gords. Dordrecht: Springer. Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the bridge over the Hao River. Roth, Harold D. 1991. Great gourd , stink tree ), By doing nothing one can accomplish everything. I cut it in half to make a dipper, bit it was too wide to scoop into anything. Chen, Guying , trans. With Zhuangzi, on the other hand, the people, animals and objects that defy reality do not necessarily teach us something about a reality of our own lives, except perhaps the idea that we are often limited by those realities. My organs are all out of order. On my reading, Zhuangzis In The Sacred Books of the East, edited by F. Max Mller. Morgan, Jeffrey. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. 2019. Contemporary Annotations and Translations of the Zhuangzi . Zhuangzi himself has traditionally been taken as the author of some of the chapters, although his precise contribution is uncertain. The great man rises high into the air, that is, he raises his consciousnesshe becomes aware even of those things which scare and disgust him, even about himself (especially about himself). Das wahre Buch vom sdlichen Bltenland. The Complete Work of the Zhuangzi . ______. Paris: Les belles lettres. He is sabotaging the very tools he might have used to explore his unconscious self and discover something useful. WebHuizis truism that Zhuangzi is not a fish shows some appreciation of the problem of SpR, but the ensuing conclusion that Zhuangzi couldnt know fish happiness assumes that Other times the humans might be in a very ordinary situation, but the humans themselves are altered or have some special background. Das wahre Buch vom sdlichen Bltenland. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-020-09765-6, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-020-09765-6. Wilhelm, Richard, trans. Since these questions might be hard to grasp in the abstract, philosophers come up with thought experiments, and based on what our understanding of the hypothetical situation is, we then move to a similar real-world scenario, having gained insight, supposedly, of how to think about those situations. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Imaginations wander through a world of Zhuangzis human and non-human characters, but unlike with the Western thought experiments, bringing back observations of such people and situations with the express purpose of better helping and understanding our own lives is not necessarily the point. Registered in England & Wales No. 8 Jackson has actually since changed his position on the thesis of physicalism and he no longer thinks its false. Yet he commits this very sin, and all because he feels he reached a valid conclusion. Chinese and Western philosophy in dialogue, Anecdotes and thought experiments in Zhuangzi and Western philosophy. Zhuangzi: The Inner Chapters. Introduction: Emotions and the Conceptual History of Qing . In Love and Emotions in Traditional Chinese Literature, edited by Halvor Eifring. vres De Tchoang-Tzeu. One reason He presupposes the correctness of his own logic, and when the world shows him that he is incorrect, say through his failure to actualize some potential, he takes this as evidence that the world is incorrect. 2015. Wieger, Lon, trans. He was down to earth and had a tongue in cheek sense of humour. What better carriage? He believes he knows what a gourd is capable of and useful for; and therefore, he believes that his conclusion about his great gourd is correct; therefore, he believes that his trials (filling it, cutting it into a dipper, etc.) PubMedGoogle Scholar. We could leave out the trolley and avoid questions about why it's a runaway trolley and why you can't shout to the people on the tracks (which, if it were a real case, would seem like very reasonable things to do). Ren, Songyao. 22The above stories show that sometimes Zhuangzi is forthright on what he thinks about a certain creature, human or otherwise. The author thanks the helpful comments of anonymous reviewers, and thanks the authors of all the references. The unrealistic nature of a thought experiment is one thing that can differentiate it from other counterfactual reasoning. On Anger: An Essay on Confucian Moral Psychology. In Returning to Zhu Xi: Emerging Patterns within the Supreme Polarity, edited by David Jones and Jinli He. Are happy feelings and experiences all that humans are ultimately after? Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Taipei : Shijie Shuju ; http://www.terebess.hu/english/chuang.html (last accessed on October 12, 2020). The Background of the Mencian Theory of Human Nature. Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 6.12: 215271. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions. Zhuangzi. Why else would he deem the gourd worthy of destruction? Insofar as these are aims in philosophy, Zhuangzi might do better in prompting these in his reader than one who puts forth a self-standing thought experiment advancing a particular thesis. He made fun of ritual, dogma, and pretentious moralizing. Correspondence to Register a free Taylor & Francis Online account today to boost your research and gain these benefits: An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East, A logical analysis of the debate on Hao River, Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, /doi/full/10.1080/09552367.2022.2108108?needAccess=true. 2014. Giles, Herbert A., trans. WebHuizi and Zhuangzi. Such distractions can be left out of fabricated cases so that we can better focus on the relevant moral principles. 27In comparison, Zhuangzis stories arguably fail as good thought experiments because there often isnt a clear question being asked, nor is it always evident what position Zhuangzi is trying to advance, what distinctions or aspects of the story he thinks are important, etc. Different disciplines have their different tools for doing so. The lack of full clarity and explanation is precisely what invites and allows the observer to make something out of the work for herself and thus arguably makes the piece, or whatever is taken from it, more memorable. Zhuangzi. Levi, Jean, trans. The Zhuangist Views on Emotions. Asian Philosophy 28.1: 5567. For example, 1) the situations are often highly unrealistic, beyond what normal, real-world counterfactual reasoning would get one to; 2) the characters involved have abilities or disabilities that few if any humans have and sometimes3; and 3) the situations have a way of making a point or a position more memorable than a plainly stated proposition4. It is at this juncture which we return to Zhuangzis answer, to Kun skyward transformation into Peng, and to the scoldquails ignorance of Pengs necessity to soar so high for so far a journey. Although these differences arguably make Zhuangzis anecdotes poor thought experiments, according to Western analytic standards, it seems that if the purpose of a fabricated story is to encourage the reader to broaden her philosophical outlook, to see something more clearly that she might not have seen in a more realistic case, or to provide a more memorable way to retain a point, then Zhuangzis stories are highly effective pedagogical tools. had a gourd of over a hundred pounds. Leiden: Brill. 2008. He Or in Searles Chinese Room, Searle argues that because he is functioning just like a computer running a program but understands nothing of the meaning of the inputs and outputs (in Chinese) that he is manipulating, so artificial intelligence, just in virtue of running a certain program, does not have understanding. Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. I cannot stress enough the importance of being an independent individual in order to achieve success in language learning. Even though the lessons are in story form, that doesnt mean that they are easy to decipher. 23What Zhuangzi thinks of Master Chariot we dont know for sure. A Didactic Annotation to the Zhuangzi . Guo, Xiang , and Cheng Xuanying , annot. <>
Changsha : Hunan Renmin Chubanshe . WebHuizi said to Zhuangzi, Can a ren indeed be without qing? The reply was, He can.But on what grounds do you call him a ren, who is thus without qing? Zhuangzi said, The Emotionless in Confucianism and Daoism: A New Interpretation. Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38.1: 118133. Uselessness. Schipper, Kristofer, trans. 11As mentioned before, Dancy explains that sometimes we come up with an imaginary case because its relevantly similar to an actual case, but the imaginary case is easier for us to think through. Such is the happiness of fish. Huizi said, You are not a fish, so whence do you know the happiness of fish? Whereas the trees in the industrial forest are straight and look alike, the crooked tree grew alone, or with a mixture of other trees of different ages and species. Zhang, Gengguang , trans. That is to say, we each contain this same oppositional force within and among us. endobj
In comparing the features of Western thought experiments to fables from Zhuangzi, we will see that although Zhuangzis stories would likely fail to be considered good philosophical thought experiments (according to the Western tradition), the very thing that makes them fail is arguably what allows the writings of Zhuangzi to continue to inspire philosophical reflection and dialogue. <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>>
A Complete Translation of the Zhuangzi [in modern Chinese] . 1920. Chinn, E., 1997, Zhuangzi and relativistic skepticism, Asian Philosophy, 7, 3: 207-220. 1994. In this paper I will present a few well-known thought experiments from contemporary Western philosophers and highlight some characteristic traits of such thought experiments. Chapter One ends with Zhuangzi 1When it comes to persuading people to acknowledge a truth or think a certain way, there are many ways that we try to discover and convince each other of the truth. Part of Springer Nature. PubMedGoogle Scholar. Roth, Harold D. 1991. How is it you never thought of making it into an enormous vessel for yourself and floating through the lakes and rivers in it? Beijing : Shangwu Yinshuguan . This is not to say that all thought experiments incorporate all of these things, but a good thought experiment will often touch on several. Some of these purposes include helping us to: 1)better understand a concept by artificially constructing a scenario that makes certain features more salient 2) think about where we stand on a specific issue 3) consider alternative perspectives in a given situation and 4) see in what way a philosophers many thoughts could be made coherent or reasonable. Once a conclusion has been reached, the presupposer in question rejects all evidence which contradicts his premises. 7Then there are other thought experiments where the humans themselves are unique. 18In this vein perhaps we could draw an analogy between Zhuangzis work and some works in modern art where its not always clear to the observer what the artist was going for. Indianapolis: Hackett. Albany: State University of New York Press. but we dont typically look at what other things the philosopher has said or what we know about the person in order to figure out how to interpret a thought experiment. First, we demonstrate that, while Huizi probably understands qing as something like feelings or emotions, Zhuangzis view is that having qing is connected with making shifei judgments whereas having no qing means that shifei has no grip on those ren, especially the shengren. 2010. Zhongguancun 59, Haidian District, Beijing, 100872, China, Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte, KU Leuven, Kardinaal Mercierplein 2, 3000, Leuven, Belgium, You can also search for this author in He really has convinced himself that his knowledge and mode of thinking is complete! A New Examination of Evidence about the Zhuangzi. Toung Pao 96.4/5: 299369. Learn more about Institutional subscriptions. On the other hand, youre certainly not a fish so that still proves you dont know what fish enjoy!, Zhuangzi said, Lets go back to your original question, please. First, we demonstrate that, while Huizi probably understands qing as something like feelings or emotions, Zhuangzis view is that having qing is connected with making shifei judgments whereas having no qing means that shifei has no grip on those ren, especially the shengren. We show that these peaceful attitudes are associated with the idea of wuwei in the Zhuangzi. 2003. ______. The point is often to free us from the human perspective. Jackson, F., 1986, What Mary didnt know, Journal of Philosophy, 83: 291-295. Zhongguancun 59, Haidian District, Beijing, 100872, China, Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte, KU Leuven, Kardinaal Mercierplein 2, 3000, Leuven, Belgium, You can also search for this author in Bradenton, FL: BookLocker. On Anger: An Essay on Confucian Moral Psychology. In Returning to Zhu Xi: Emerging Patterns within the Supreme Polarity, edited by David Jones and Jinli He. Please read this book to learn how to take advantage of the abundant language resources and opportunities for communication that surround you. 28Traditional Western thought experiments and stories in Zhuangzi serve several purposes that might be harder to achieve with more straightforward argumentation or prose. This is uncharacteristic of Western thought experiments where the philosopher presents the imagined case and then discusses what it implies. new essays on wine, taste, philosophy and aesthetics, arte, psicologia e realismo. Fraser, Chris. Beyond the Troubled Water of Shifei: From Disputation to Walking-Two-Roads in the Zhuangzi. 8One hallmark of thought experiments is that they involve stretching ones imagination for a time in order to imagine either an unusual human, an unusual situation, or both. Why dont philosophers just state their questions or positions more plainly? 2011. They are used in all branches of philosophy, including ethics, metaphysics and epistemology. ______, trans. New York: Columbia University Press. 5Thought experiments have long been used in philosophy as a way to raise questions or pursue knowledge through considering hypothetical situations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Leiden: Brill. Zhuangzi on Qing: Lack of Qing, Giving Free Reign to Qing, and Setting Qing at Rest :. Philosophical Researches 4: 5059. Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Taoistic Thought. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 51.2: 599650. 19To be fair, I should note that Zhuangzi doesnt always leave the reader in the dark as to what a story is about or what he himself thinks of the characters involved. WebZhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when Zhuangzi said, See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! 2018. For example, in Chapter 1 of the Zhuangzi there is the story of a fish named Minnow turning into a bird named Breeze and being laughed at by the cicada and student-dove.19 Here Zhuangzi suggests that it is only because the little bugs have such a small perspective that they cant understand bigger things, so while its understandable that they laugh, its due to a short-sightedness on their part. Or consider the story of Huizi and the yard-long gourd that was too big to be a ladle so Huizi smashes it because it was useless.20 Zhuangzi then tells a story about a smart traveler who knew how to make good use of an ointment for chapped hands. 2Reading Zhuangzi one encounters anecdotes that are not quite the same as a classic Western thought experiment, and yet there are several similarities we might note. Contrast the greater man with the lesser. Leiden: Brill. It only seems useless to you because you want to turn it into something else and dont know how to appreciate it for what it is. Sheesh! Hui Shis questions reflect a narrow empiricist epistemic approach while Zhuangzis replies intimate that Hui Shis notion of how one knows is too restrictive (even The Philosophy of Life: A New Reading of the Zhuangzi. 2015. One reason Zhuangzi; The Complete Writings, translated by Brook Ziporyn, Hackett Publishing Company Inc., 2020.
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