Wuwei and Ziran: The Daodejing and Environmental Philosophy
摘要
This chapter reconstructs the significance of wuwei 無為 and ziran 自然 in the Daodejing and explores their contemporary biopolitical and ecological consequences. It differentiates alternative environmental implications of different readings of wuwei as apathetic indifference, cruel lack of benevolence, amoral situational adaptation and playing, biospiritual self-preservation, mystical fusion, and (as proposed here) nurturing life (yangsheng 養生) through practices of shifting responsive care (ci 慈) and non-preferential and non-benevolent love (ai 愛). Each interpretation is necessarily a contemporary reimagining and entails different responses or non-responses to current climate and ecological conditions.