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  1. Zhuangzi and Personal Autonomy.Jeff Morgan - 2023 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 22 (4):605-621.
    I apply the Zhuangzi 莊子 to assess the contemporary value of personal autonomy. Focusing on two concepts, wuwei 無為 and you 遊, I clarify the “wandering ideal” in the Zhuangzi to challenge the ideal of autonomy as central to a well-lived life. Drawing on Sneddon’s persuasive recent account of autonomy, the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi, as well as recent secondary scholarship on the text, I show that the wandering ideal suggests a stark move away from the controlled and self-reflective (...)
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  • Wuwei in the Lüshi Chunqiu.David Chai - 2023 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 22 (3):437-455.
    Given wuwei 無為 describes the life praxis of the sage and statecraft of the enlightened ruler while also denoting the comportment of the Dao 道—an alternating state of quiet dormancy and creative activity—are the standard translations of wuwei as “nonaction” or “effortless action” up to the task? They are not, it will be argued, in that they fail to convey the true profundity of wuwei. The objective of this essay is twofold: to show that wuwei is better understood as “abiding (...)
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  • Positive Psychology and Philosophy-as-Usual: An Unhappy Match?Josef Mattes - 2022 - Philosophies 7 (3):52.
    The present article critiques standard attempts to make philosophy appear relevant to the scientific study of well-being, drawing examples in particular from works that argue for fundamental differences between different forms of wellbeing (by Besser-Jones, Kristjánsson, and Kraut, for example), and claims concerning the supposedly inherent normativity of wellbeing research (e.g., Prinzing, Alexandrova, and Nussbaum). Specifically, it is argued that philosophers in at least some relevant cases fail to apply what is often claimed to be among their core competences: conceptual (...)
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  • The Unskilled Zhuangzi: Big and Useless and Not So Good at Catching Rats.Eric Schwitzgebel - 2019 - In Karyn Lai & Wai Wai Chiu (eds.), Skill and Mastery Philosophical Stories from the Zhuangzi. London: Rowman and Littlefield International. pp. 101-110.
    The mainstream tradition in recent Anglophone Zhuangzi interpretation treats spontaneous skillful responsiveness – similar to the spontaneous responsiveness of a skilled artisan, athlete, or musician – as a, or the, Zhuangzian ideal. However, this interpretation is poorly grounded in the Inner Chapters. On the contrary, in the Inner Chapters, this sort of skillfulness is at least as commonly criticized as celebrated. Even the famous passage about the ox-carving cook might be interpreted more as a celebration of the knife’s passivity than (...)
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  • Comparative reflections on skill and the good life in zhuangzi and stoicism.Jiangxia Yu - 2020 - Asian Philosophy 30 (2):175-193.
    This paper explores the concept of skill in Zhuangzi and Stoicism, and argues that the role of the Stoic techne in practicing the art of living can be better understood if we introduce some perspec...
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  • Naturalism and Moral Expertise in the Zhuangzi.Christopher Kirby - 2017 - Journal of East-West Thought 7 (3):13-27.
    This essay will examine scholarly attempts at distilling a proto-ethical philosophy from the Daoist classic known as the Zhuangzi. In opposition to interpretations of the text which characterize it as amoralistic, I will identify elements of a natural normativity in the Zhuangzi. My examination features passages from the Zhuangzi – commonly known as the “knack” passages – which are often interpreted through some sort of linguistic, skeptical, or relativistic lens. Contra such readings, I believe the Zhuangzi prescribes an art of (...)
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  • Pleasure principle and perfect happiness: morality in Jacques Lacan and Zhuangzi.Quan Wang - 2018 - Asian Philosophy 28 (3):259-276.
    ABSTRACTJacques Lacan studied Chinese classics and received much inspiration from Zhuangzi. This paper concentrates on the comparative study of morality in those two thinkers from three connecting levels, namely, nature as the source of ethical codes, reason as the means to arrive at the ethical state, and pleasure as the ultimate purpose of morality. The investigation into the topic is enlightening for posthuman morality. Zhuangzi’s idea of the poetics of oneness inspires the Lacanian concept of the Real and ushers us (...)
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  • The Zhuangzi on Coping with Society.Paul J. D’Ambrosio - 2020 - Journal of Religious Ethics 48 (3):474-497.
    Stories in the Zhuangzi detailing expert artisans and other extraordinary people are often read as celebrations of “skills” or “knacks.” In this paper, I will argue that they would be more accurately understood as “coping” stories. Taken as a celebration of one’s “skill” or “knack” they transform the Zhuangzi into an implicit advocate of conforming to, or even identifying with, one’s social roles. I will argue that the stories of artisans and extraordinarily skilled people are less about cultivating one’s talents (...)
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  • Situated self-awareness in expert performance: a situated normativity account of riken no ken.Katsunori Miyahara & Miguel Segundo-Ortin - 2022 - Synthese 200 (3):1-25.
    We explore the nature of expert minds in skilled performance by examining classic Japanese dramatist Zeami’s account of skilled expertise in Noh drama. Zeami characterizes expert minds by the co-existence of mushin and riken no ken. Mushin is an empty state of mind devoid of mental contents. Riken no ken is a distinctive form of self-awareness, where the actor embodies a common perspective with the audience upon one’s own performance. Conventional accounts of riken no ken present it as a form (...)
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  • Re-visiting the role of craft in Zhuangzi’s philosophy.Raymond W. K. Lau - 2021 - Asian Philosophy 31 (4):368-384.
    ABSTRACT In the ‘Cook Ding cutting up an ox’ parable, Zhuangzi advanced a doctrine on craft and its relationship with Dao. With reference to Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy in conjunction with an analysis of Zhuangzi’s epistemological position, we argue that Zhuangzi understood craft as involving the supersession of the cognitive. In craft, the relationship between human and world is non-cognitive and ‘pre-objective’, the living of this kind of relationship gives rise to a non-cognitive ‘practical sense’ which enables the craftsman’s movements to spontaneously (...)
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  • Which Button Do I Push? More Thoughts on Resetting Moral Philosophy in the Western Tradition.Ronnie Littlejohn - 2021 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 20 (1):49-67.
    This article investigates Michael Slote’s call for rebalancing Western moral philosophy by using Chinese philosophy, especially Confucianism, as a form of moral sentimentalism. I agree with the need for a correction of the over reliance on reason in Western moral philosophy, but I reject the rational/sentimental dichotomy and focus on the importance of the will. I make use of the important contribution made by Daoism and the conduct concept of wu-wei 無為. I explain the use of wu-wei in Daoist texts (...)
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  • Justice as the Practice of Non-Coercive Action: A Study of John Dewey and Classical Daoism.Jacob Bender - 2016 - Asian Philosophy 26 (1):20-37.
    ABSTRACTIn this essay, I will argue for an understanding of justice that is grounded in our imperfect world by drawing upon the works of John Dewey and the Classical Daoist philosophers. It will require a reconstructed understanding of persons as a field/continuum of interrelations and an updated understanding of human action and agency. This understanding of justice takes the form of non-coercive action, interaction that respects the particularity of each lived situation. The practice culminates in an ability to respond to (...)
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  • A comparative study of the subject in Jacques Lacan and Zhuangzi.Quan Wang - 2017 - Asian Philosophy 27 (3):248-262.
    Jacques Lacan has creatively grafted Zhuangzi’s concept of the subject on the Western tradition of Logo-centrism. Lacan rewrites the triangle positions of the subject as the Real, the Imaginary, the Symbolic, expresses them in the vocabulary of detective stories, and achieves his scholarly reputation. The insufficiency of his theory could be redressed by Zhuangzi’s idea of ‘the poetics of oneness.’ For Zhuangzi, a man can forget his ‘Social I’ and ‘Corporeal I,’ arrive at the phase of ‘the equality of things’ (...)
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  • The influence of Daoism, Chan Buddhism, and Confucianism on the theory and practice of East Asian martial arts.Anton Sukhoverkhov, A. A. Klimenko & A. S. Tkachenko - 2021 - Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 48 (2):235-246.
    This paper discusses the impact of East Asian philosophical ideas on the origins and development of martial arts. The article argues that the ideas of Daoist philosophy were developed into ‘soft styles’ or ‘internal schools’ that are based on the doctrine of ‘wuwei’ (action through non-action, effortless action) which follows the path of Yin. These styles are in opposition to ‘external’ or ‘hard styles’ of martial arts that follow the path of Yang. Daoist philosophy of ‘ziran’ (naturalness, spontaneity) influenced ‘animal’ (...)
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