The Art of the Way: Toward a Dao-Centered Ethics in the Zhuangzi

This paper argues that we can understand the practical philosophy of early Chinese thinkers like Zhuangzi by considering how they imagine the normative aspects of the world and how their existence can constitute reasons for action, how they can make certain actions appropriate or inappropriate. We can interpret these normative aspects of the world as ethical warrants for moral action and as the basis for evaluative attitudes. Although these normative dimensions of the world may not be readily apparent, many early Chinese thinkers believed that we could possess veridical access to them through forms of revealed knowledge or revelation. In other words, the perception of normative realities like Heaven or the Dao serve as grounds which make evaluative attitudes and practical reasons appropriate or inappropriate, more or less reflective of the Way. The paper concludes with some methodological reflections on the “asymmetry” that currently exists in comparative ethics and the reasons why this asymmetry continues to endure.