Plant Analogy
• Helps account for moral growth
– Knowledge as discriminating ability
• (branching) not guided by language
– And as ease of (moral) action
• Explain evil (weeds and environment)
• Justify liberal politics (soil)
• Shi-feithis-not this是 非to 智 zhiwisdom
– Growth of intuitive responsive motivation
– Neo-Confucian moral “metaphysics” and the
sage
Issues
• Strong-weak choice (Conf. detail)
– Weak interpretation plausible, strong
needed to defend against moral reform
• Normative result = Mozi (Utilitarian)
– Moral psychology for universal concern
• Problem: is moral psychology relevant
– Can’t get “ought” from “is”
– Mencius’ strategies: unique, health,
choose!
Two Principles
• Link fact & duty:
– "Is-ought": “is” does not imply “ought”
• Undermines Mencius’ appeal to nature
– "Ought-can:" ought implies can
• Is moral reform possible (yes)
• Anti-language implications
– Avoid 2 roots—foolish man
– Good language can inspire but not
contribute
• Bad language can disrupt and destroy
Questions
Coffee Tutorial today w/ questions
Back to some Basic concepts (divisions) of
philosophy
Ethics
Teleological V Deontological
• Normative Ethics: Two Types
– Teleological & deontological (duty)
• Consequence/result, look forward, do for result
• Duty, desert, merit, look backward, for own sake
• Deontology v utilitarianism
– Telling truth, keeping promises, justice and freedom
– Is punishment justified
• Grades on examination—result, encouragement, effort?
• Christian duties (10 commandments)
• Standards apply to aspects of morality
– Acts or rules (system)
Mozi Resembles Rule Utility
• Evaluate individual actions or “patterns”
• Evaluate a tradition by how people governed
by it act
– Actually tradition or 道 discourse dao utilitarian
• Tests for Rule v Act Utility
–
–
–
–
White lies
Keeping Promises
Birth control
War and deterrence
Normative Ethics Classifications
Teleological
(consequential)
Deontological
(Duty)
Act
(situation
ethics)
Act Utilitarian (Egoist, Mencius (metanationalist etc.)
ethics = intuition)
Rule
Rule Utilitarian
(language, practice,
system etc.)
Ten
Commandments
3000 禮 li
Daoism: Early History
• Hermits and Yang Zhu 楊朱: No theory
of 道 but a Daoist attitude
• First theoretical Daoist: Shen Dao慎 到
– Natural performance daoguide道
– Sum of all actual performance 道daoguides is
the great dao 大 道
• The complete history of the universe
– You will follow大 道—no knowledge of 道
needed
Three Determinisms
• Logical, Scientific, Fatalistic
– What will be will be A = A
• Like Parmenides “what is is”
• Tautology=true by meaning/grammar
– How to be right w/o saying anything
• Don’t ___too much; Do what you should do.
• Doesn’t entail anything else—free will
• Scientific: induction on experience
– Things happen by predictable laws (causal)
– Generalize: everything predictable in advance
Fatalism
• Claim that your decision/will cannot
affect the world, outcome, future
– Out of human control
– Argument (one of the above or theological)
• Does fatalism follow?
– Not from logical determinism—study\pass
– From causal? Probably not
• Soft determinism says free will does not contradict
causal predictability
• God’s foreknowledge?
慎 到Shen Dao’s Problems
• Draws fatalism conclusion
– From logical determinism
– There is just one future actual history
• The one caused by my (our) actions
• Unnatural natural advice
– Knowing & judgment “natural” for humans
• Paradox of "abandon knowledge“
– 道 Dao as the object of knowledge
• Knowing dao—not needed  abandon
• Obey it only if you ignore it
Laozi老子
• Textual issues
• The Zhuangzi's history
– Between Shendao and Zhuangzi
• Abandon knowledge w/o relying on
fatalism
– Argument from freedom from social
control
– Spontaneity
Analysis of "Knowledge"
• Discourse 道 daos: come in
opposites
– Names 名(opposites)
– Distinctions (implied: one per pair)
– Desires 欲
• Innovation in seeing desires generated by
names/distinctions
– 為 weideem:do action
Problem: Same Paradox?
• Distinction of natural and conventional
desires
– Forms of social constraint
– Language distorts by gross distinction while
there are infinite shades in nature
• Desire to be natural
• Act on the desire (forgetting)
• 無 為 wulack weideem:do a paradox
– Wu-wei and yet wu-bu-wei無不為
– no concept guided action
No Constant Dao
• 道可道非常道 Any dao that guides is not
constant dao-ing
• Because based on 名 and
– 名可名非常名 Any name that names is not
constant name-ing
• Negative 道 daoguide by emphasizing
opposite virtues
– Passive, lower, water, cool, submissive,
female
– Constant 道 daoguide ? Unspeakable?
Relevance to Mencius
• The intuitions that Confucians think are
natural are socially cultivated
– Burial, filial piety, attitudes to authority
– Status, wealth, style
• Hong Kong slavery
– Innate天 道 is very thin
• Eat, sleep, children, farm, small villages
Common Anti-language Problem
• 墨 辯 Mohist semantic analysis:
– To say “language bad” is bad
– Paradox of the liar
• This sentence is false
• All Sentences are false
– Not a paradox
– But false
• Challenge to Zhuangzi
Puzzle
• All language distorts the 道 dao
Zhuangzi: Textual Issues
• Relation to Laozi
– Probably earlier
– No contact or knowledge (mostly later students)
– Project a similarity of focus
• Construction of desires from language/culture
• Relation to School of Names名 家 closer
– Friend of 惠 施 Hui Shi
• Deals with anti-language paradox better
Pipes of 天tian nature:sky
• Human voices and arguing about philosophy
is natural
– Like birds tweeting and frogs croaking
• Gives Yangzhu, Mozi and Mencius what
they want
– Not worth anything
– Want authority over rivals and天tiannature:sky fails
• Hint from Shen Dao—no normative content
• Pure fact—no ought/value
Priority of Dao over天
• Must presuppose a 道 daoguide
• For a Daoist, 道 daoguide the authority, not 天
tiannature:sky
– The cosmos doesn't make guiding judgments-all from a 道daoguide
– Cannot escape responsibility for our own dao
judgments
• Should I follow天 tiannature:sky?
• No matter what authority
Refutation of Mencius
• Should follow our hearts and should
follow 天 tiannature:sky (性 xingnature )
– All organs are equally natural
• C.f. Mencius' weeds
– How do you是shithis:right a favorite?
• Rely on the心 xinheart-mind? Begs the question
• Take turns or have no ruler?