Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Philosophy of Zhuangzi is a form of Skepticism Essay

Philosophy of Zhuangzi is a form of Skepticism - Essay Example Zhuangzi is a Chinese philosopher, though there is no much information about him apart from what is contained in books named after him and his way of thinking and analyzing situations. In his philosophies, he does not organize his ideas systematically and fails to define his terms too. Skepticism is a complicated epistemological position, which any philosopher or researcher can distinguish among its varieties through focusing on the strength and scope of themes. Skepticism entails doubtfulness of a specific individual in a given aspect of nature while relativism explains the point of views without validity or absolute truth. Zhuangzi’s philosophy is relativistic in the sense that, he tries to hide from the fact that man cannot do without relying on some given aspects, hence, nature is inevitable. Although the interpretation of Zhuangzi’s philosophy is but a scandal, his philosophy carries all the above aspects, that is, skepticism, relativism, radicalism, and therapy, in that, there are various views in which one can examine it through. His works are philosophical, and they have a grip of a strict Chinese philosophy of language. This Chinese Philosopher uses skeptic language in his writings, which are difficult to get the meaning from because of their unsystematic nature. It is viable to defend the philosophy as relative skepticism if one can highlight guiding wisdom from the text. Examining its skeptic nature, various componen ts can act as guiding principles in making this stand a reality. When analyzing Zhuangzi’s philosophy, we can see that he did not commit to what his passages entail. Refraining from commitments and/or judgments, we can treat his philosophies as a recommendation of how people should use their brain to create spiritual or personal transformation. Zhuangzi’s philosophies address many issues including politics and the way a human mind should think. He does play a political role, in his works, of skepticism that is relativistic, in a way that justifies Daoism as a system of the political liberalism of the Chinese. In my view, it is factual that his philosophies are skeptic and relativistic (Ivanhoe & Norden 55). He lacks conviction in his philosophies, though one can deduce the fact that knowledge and truth exist, from his philosophical works. Several writers draw Zhuangzi’s philosophy as non-epistemic because they feel like his apparent skepticism is not an out righ tly negative thesis about our achievements, but a recommendation about an approach we need to embrace. Most versions approve that the Zhuangzi’s philosophical- skeptical passages propose a relatively comprehensive scope. While the skepticism takes the shape of ethical skepticism in orbiting about the lapse of norms, it indirectly embraces all linguistic organization (Ivanhoe & Norden 254). For instance, in the northern darkness, he is talking about a fish called Minnow that change into a bird named Breeze. It is not easy to derive the exact meaning of the name of the bird, hence creating this philosophical nature that is not systematic, of Zhuangzi’s works. The second example is the Tales of Q3; he states that little wisdom cannot much knowledge, or fewer years measuring up to many years. There is no much knowledge about the writing, but its name can easily drive us to a conclusion that it is a work of fiction (Ivanhoe & Norden 208). Zhuangzi’s way of naming cha racters in his works leaves the reader with room to think and come up with their own understanding of what exactly he meant. Some, like heaven in the Tales of Q3, have more than one connotation; hence, the reader has an open ground to analyze, think and make a judgment. This idea addresses the therapeutic part of his philosophy because it is examining a radical issue, in an artistic manner. Zhuangzi’s highly metaphoric kind of criticism suggests that he did not accept the condition of the world in its form, and tries to come up with imaginary theories instead of simply

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.