Daoism Laozi o Daoist objections to Confucianism Virtue Confucians think What actually happens according to Daoists This leads to according to Daoists Li Yi Xiao Leads children to be polite and well mannered Appropriate intentions moral righteousness Filial piety Ren Benevolence People are stubborn We tend to rebel Loathing We accuse people of having a holier than thou attitude Resentment Envy looking to other families for comparison Selfishness I want my goodness reciprocated When it s not it leads to Greed Resentment when not reciprocated o The Problem with Society According to Daoism There s too much of it We need to reduce society starting with the Confucian virtues The problem with society is that it teaches us to be greedy and to want the things we don t have or that do not jive with who we are o Society forces us to go against our own natures by trying to prescribe one solution for all people There is no cookie cutter model of human flourishing In other words human flourishing can come in many different forms So although the Confucian model of human flourishing might work well for some people it won t work well for others Hence laws or moral development programs meant to apply to all people in the same way will not bring about human flourishing for everyone o The Ineffability of the Dao and the Contrast Theory of Names The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao Every time we try to talk about the Dao we get it wrong The Dao cannot be fully put into words This might not be too bad think about trying to define art Instead the Dao must be grasped intuitively There is an undifferentiated reality that we all share When we use concepts we carve up the Dao but never get the whole thing When we use concepts names etc we literally carve a reality out of the Dao So projects like the Rectification of Names are a fool s errand We will never get words to line up with the Dao An attempted definition anyways The dao is the natural unified manifold or way of all things As a human phenomenon Dao has the sense of making one s way according to the way things are naturally The Contrast Theory of Names By naming something you also name its opposite But this sort of naming cannot apply to the all encompassing underlying reality that is the Dao The dao is one constant unified manifold that defies naming o The Daoist Recipe The sage acquires de by following the Dao which is to recognize the yin yang structure of the universe embracing and recognizing the value of emptiness and practicing wu wei Sage The sage does what comes natural without thinking thoughts like what must I do in order to Daoist sage is against excess extreme pursuit of desires The sage embraces intuitive knowledge and enigmatic virtue De The Daoist notion of de can be thought of as power or efficiency Being maximally efficient De is the manifestations of Dao in individual Dao Defined above Reality is composed of two forces yin and yang Yin dark cold passive female Yang active fiery bright male It is bad to pursue one extreme over the other This is because it neglects one of these two forces If you re going to be a sage you need to embrace both yin and yang and find a balance Emptiness What makes something valuable is as much about what is NOT there as much as what is there So we want to make our minds empty in that way that is we want to make our minds useful Get rid of unnecessary desires and plans and make yourself simple minded NOT STUPID The sage seeks to cultivate this uncluttered mind This is the best way to maximize happiness Wui wei Literally means without making or doing or non action This is the Daoist term for acting without an agenda A common analogy is water It naturally flows downhill but if something blocks it it just flows around Work with natural processes rather than applying effort to go against natural processes Reduce wasted effort be in the zone Act without reflection Be spontaneous o Principle of Non Contention Resolve disagreements via peaceful means only as violence and conflict only lead to more negative side effects Conflict is really just dis harmony in an otherwise harmonious system Thus to resolve conflicts I must try to return the system to its natural harmony Notice also that according to the Daoist following the principle of non contention requires less effort Daoists know how to roll with the punches o Daoist Attitudes towards government The good government governs least It is like frying small fish don t interfere too much or you will ruin things Meddle as little as possible in the affairs of the people The best government then is a small government o P u Unhewn wood or uncarved wood It symbolizes the state of things in their natural form with infinite potential This is the original state that we want to return to Zhuangzi o Arguments against Conventional Knowledge Conventional knowledge is supposed to get at the way the world really is Zhuangzi and the Daoists disagree First distinctions When we make distinctions pick things out with words they are always relative Remember when we use our concepts we are relying on the distinctions we have made So our knowledge is relative Secondly relativity of perceptivities Different perspectives lead to different conclusions Thirdly skepticism Zhuangzi says there is not one truth to refer back to Just because you win an argument doesn t show correctness Any judge is subject to scrutiny Thus you will run into the regress problem impossible to determine which perspective to adopt A solution could be direct experiences o Perspectivalness The sage should adopt a humble skepticism she embraces flexibility becoming able to understand difference in perspectives and be ale to fluidly move between them An example is The Butcher He doesn t cut against the bones instead he finds the natural space between them This makes his job easy His cutting is maximally efficient remember that is de The Butcher is able to do this because he can shift perspectives He sees the cow he sees all cows he sees the joints of the cow o Uselessness By uselessness Zhuangzi seems to thinking of non exploitable An example is the gnarled tree The tree being useless allows it to stand tall because no one has a reason to cut it down When we want to call things useless it is only because we are trapped in one perspective o Life as Constant Change and the appropriate attitude towards death Death is just another change in the Dao It would be imprudent to fight it Death of Laoza Everyone at