Co-becoming and Value Paradox

This chapter explores the concept of “co-becoming” through the notion of value as power (neng 能) within minority contrarian traditions of European and Chinese philosophy, focusing on Spinoza’s conatus, Nietzsche’s “will to power,” and Daoist, Confucian, and Tiantai Buddhist notions of capacity and unblocked activity. Challenging mainstream unifying value theories, the essay examines texts such as Liezi and Zhuangzi to argue that the highest value lies not in discrete virtues like humankindness (仁), eloquence, courage, or dignity, but in the ability to enact—and transcend—them and their opposites. Drawing from Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist sources, the argument highlights the structural unity of value as a shared capacity for transformation, overcoming boundaries and limitations, and maximizing openness (tong 通, “de-obstruction”) to all possible states. The chapter connects classical and medieval Chinese thought to Spinoza’s and Nietzsche’s conceptions of desire, activity, and power, culminating in Tiantai Buddhism’s radical identity of conditionality and unconditionality, determination and indetermination. Ultimately, it proposes that true ethical and metaphysical value is not found in fixed forms or virtues, but in the power to become, transform, and encompass both sides of every contrary—an expansive, dynamic, and paradoxical ontology of value that subverts and redefines traditional notions of goodness.