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<p>A major pillar of Brook Ziporyn’s argument for adopting a mystical atheist religious attitude is what he calls “The Great Asymmetry.” This is the idea that the purposeless, infinite, undetermined and unnamed—all concomitants of his mystical atheist view—have the capacity to encompass and ground other positions, whether monotheist or “secular atheist,” while the reverse is not the case. An attitude characterized by purposelessness, for instance, necessarily contains elements of purpose, while purposivity does not accommodate purposelessness. The <i>locus classicus</i> of this Great Asymmetry, according to Ziporyn, is the A/B relationship in the <i>Daodejing</i>, a Daoist text with origins stretching back to several centuries BCE. The A/B schema describes the interplay of opposites, a theme that pervades the <i>Daodejing</i>. Based on a comparison of different versions and interpretations of the text—the received Wang Bi text, Ziporyn’s translations and interpretations, and the excavated Guodian manuscript—this article questions whether the A/B relationship is indeed characterized by asymmetry. I propose instead that it is primarily a relationship of complementarity and balance. Through a reformulation of the A/B schema, the article reassesses the relationship between Ziporyn’s mystical atheism and two adjacent positions: secular atheism and the negative theology.</p>

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God and Not-God: Balancing the Daoist A and B in Brook Ziporyn’s Mystical Atheism

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月18日

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  • Rory O’Neill

摘要

A major pillar of Brook Ziporyn’s argument for adopting a mystical atheist religious attitude is what he calls “The Great Asymmetry.” This is the idea that the purposeless, infinite, undetermined and unnamed—all concomitants of his mystical atheist view—have the capacity to encompass and ground other positions, whether monotheist or “secular atheist,” while the reverse is not the case. An attitude characterized by purposelessness, for instance, necessarily contains elements of purpose, while purposivity does not accommodate purposelessness. The locus classicus of this Great Asymmetry, according to Ziporyn, is the A/B relationship in the Daodejing, a Daoist text with origins stretching back to several centuries BCE. The A/B schema describes the interplay of opposites, a theme that pervades the Daodejing. Based on a comparison of different versions and interpretations of the text—the received Wang Bi text, Ziporyn’s translations and interpretations, and the excavated Guodian manuscript—this article questions whether the A/B relationship is indeed characterized by asymmetry. I propose instead that it is primarily a relationship of complementarity and balance. Through a reformulation of the A/B schema, the article reassesses the relationship between Ziporyn’s mystical atheism and two adjacent positions: secular atheism and the negative theology.