Steve Coutinho - Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy: Vagueness, Transformation and Paradox

ZHUANGZI AND EARLY CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

This is comparative philosophy at its best. It is an object lesson in its own thesis, challenging the closure of exclusive interpretive judgments with the ingenuity of more productive, insights and discernments. From the purchase of a range of familiar Western interpretive strategies, Coutinho goes beyond dichotomy to promote a third position: penumbral thinking. In a word, penumbral thinking is an attempt to exploit the always attendant indeterminacy that honeycombs determinate vocabularies as an open and bottomless source of increased meaning.

-Roger T. Ames, Professor of Philosophy,
University of Hawaii

The Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi (also known as Chuang Tzu), along with Confucius, Lao Tzu, and the Buddha, ranks among the most influential thinkers in the development of East Asian thought. His literary style is humorous and entertaining, yet the philosophical content is extraordinarily subtle and profound.

This book introduces key topics in early Daoist philosophy. Drawing on several issues and methods in Western philosophy, from analytical philosophy to semiotics and hermeneutics, the author throws new light on the ancient Zhuangzi text. Engaging Daoism and contemporary Western philosophical logic, and drawing on new developments in our understanding of early Chinese culture, Coutinho challenges the interpretation of Zhuangzi as either a skeptic or a relativist, and instead seeks to explore his philosophy as emphasizing the ineradicable vagueness of language, thought and reality.

This new interpretation of the Zhuangzi offers an important development in the understanding of Daoist philosophy, describing a world in flux in which things themselves are vague and inconsistent, and tries to show us a Way (a Dao) to negotiate through the shadows of a chaotic world.

Ashgate World Philosophy Series

The Ashgate World Philosophies Series responds to the remarkable growth of interest among English-language readers in recent years in philosophical traditions outside those of the West. The traditions of Indian, Chinese, and Japanese thought, as well as those of the Islamic world, Latin America, Africa, Aboriginal Australian, Pacific and American Indian peoples, are all attracting lively attention from professional philosophers and students alike, and this new Ashgate series provides introductions to these traditions as well as in-depth research into central issues and themes within those traditions. The series is particularly designed for readers whose interests are not adequately addressed by general surveys of World Philosophy, and it includes accessible, yet research-led, texts for wider readership and upper-level student use, as well as research monographs. The series embraces a wide variety of titles ranging from introductions on particular world philosophies and informed surveys of the philosophical contributions of geographical regions, to in-depth discussion of a theme, topic, problem or movement and critical appraisals of individual thinkers or schools of thinkers.

Series Editors:

David E. Cooper, University of Durham, UK

Robert C. Solomon, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Kathleen M. Higgins, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Purushottama Bilimoria, Deakin University, Australia

Other titles in the series:

Buddhism, Knowledge and Liberation

A Philosophical Study

David Burton

Zen Buddhism and Environmental Ethics

Simon P. James

Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy

Edited by Bo Mou

An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy

An annotated translation of the Yoga Sutras

Ashok Kumar Malhotra

Zhuangzi and Early Chinese Philosophy

Vagueness, Transformation and Paradox

STEVE COUTINHO

Towson University, Maryland, USA

First published 2004 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright Steve Coutinho 2004

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Coutinho, Steve

Zhuangzi and early Chinese philosophy : vagueness, transformation and paradox. (Ashgate world philosophies series)

1. Zhuang zi

I. Title

181.1'14

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coutinho, Steve, 1963

Zhuangzi and early Chinese philosophy: vagueness transformation and paradox / Steve Coutinho. 1st ed.

p. cm. (Ashgate world philosophies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7546-3730-1 (alk. paper)

1. Zhuangzi. Nan hua jing. 2. Philosophy, Taoist. 3. Philosophy, Chinese. I. Title. II. Series.

BL1900.C576C68 2004

181'. 114dc22

2004011994

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-3730-1 (hbk)

from western Zhou to Qin and Han, China followed a winding course of development. The more than five centuries of the eastern Zhou era were the longest period of disunion in the whole of Chinese history, but China did not dissolve into separate entities, and no insurmountable barriers or fences separated the various states of lords. The intercommunication and movement of people, the merging and diffusion of cultures, and the strategic activities, allegiances, and subjugations of the rulersthese enabled the whole of China to maintain organic ties among its parts, as in a game of go.

Li Xueqin, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations.

Contents

There is growing interest among experts and amateurs, Sinologists and Sinophiles alike, in the philosophy of the ancient Daoist thinker Zhuangzi (also known as Chuang Tzu). This book, I sincerely hope, will have something of interest to say to both. It is my firm belief that philosophy, no matter how rarified and technical, should make every attempt to communicate outside the walls of its discipline, and that, if worthwhile, it should make a difference to peoples lives. The reader who browses casually through this book will notice unfamiliar signs, logical symbols and Chinese characters. These are technical details included solely for the convenience and benefit of scholars, and for those who read Chinese. They should not pose a serious obstacle for the general reader, but hopefully will pique their curiosity.

Western academia is in crisis. Post-colonial disillusionment with an imperialist past has led to a widespread rejection of the traditional ideals of rationality, truth, and progress. It is commonly thought that if one does not embrace a radical scepticism or relativism, then one must be an absolutist with imperialist designs. I do not accept the terms of this dichotomy. The extremists on both sides, I believe, have overlooked a pragmatic middle ground: one that rejects foundations without being nihilistic, and that accepts plurality without being relativistic. Such a position tends to be too radical for the conservatives, and also too conservative for the radicals. Perhaps if they abandon their dichotomous modes of judgment, they will be able to appreciate the value of the middle ground.