PHIL-202 Lecture 8: Laozi Political and Moral Philosophy
Document Summary
Dao is transcendent and exceeds limits of experience. At the beginning there was the dao which is the source of all beings. Individual creatures perish but the dao within them never dies. Both transcendent and immanent: obviously present in all things of the world, in natural functions. With 10 and 11 combined we have a moral code of conduct forming:the correct way to act ofte(cid:374) (cid:396)effe(cid:396)ed to as a(cid:272)ti(cid:374)g i(cid:374) a(cid:272)(cid:272)o(cid:396)da(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:449)ith (cid:862)the (cid:449)a(cid:455) of hea(cid:448)e(cid:374)(cid:863) Notio(cid:374) of (cid:862)(cid:449)u(cid:863): laozi posits (cid:374)o(cid:374)(cid:271)ei(cid:374)g as the sou(cid:396)(cid:272)e of (cid:271)eing, but nonbeing is not nothingness: wu is translated as nonbeing, but more an absence of existence. According to aozi what is (cid:862)the(cid:396)e(cid:863) a(cid:374)d (cid:862)(cid:374)ot the(cid:396)e(cid:863) (cid:272)o(cid:373)ple(cid:373)e(cid:374)t ea(cid:272)h othe(cid:396). Like a (cid:396)oo(cid:373) (cid:396)e(cid:395)ui(cid:396)es (cid:271)ei(cid:374)g (e(cid:454)isti(cid:374)g (cid:449)als a(cid:374)d windows) it also requires some nonbeing (empty space) I(cid:374) so(cid:373)e (cid:396)espe(cid:272)t laozi"s (cid:448)ie(cid:449) (cid:396)efle(cid:272)t metaphysical realism: Mr1: the world has a mind independent reality, which is external to our concepts.
