Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism

This study illustrates how ethics is possible without any appeal to antecedent “ethical principles” by drawing on Lao-Zhuang Daoism. What makes Lao-Zhuang Daoist ethics so different from prevailing accounts of the ethical life is that it provides an account of why persons should be apprehensive of b...

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Main Author: Bender, Jacob David
Other Authors: Li Chenyang
Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146748
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1467482023-03-11T20:14:31Z Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism Bender, Jacob David Li Chenyang School of Humanities CYLI@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Philosophy::Chinese This study illustrates how ethics is possible without any appeal to antecedent “ethical principles” by drawing on Lao-Zhuang Daoism. What makes Lao-Zhuang Daoist ethics so different from prevailing accounts of the ethical life is that it provides an account of why persons should be apprehensive of being “principled” if they wanted to become morally sensitive human beings. These insights are in turn grounded in the Daoist’s naturalistic account of mind and experience, and this, as I detail, is vastly different from much of western philosophy. For the Daoist, the practical takes precedence to the theoretical. Their account of the ethical life illustrates how certain forms of abstract knowledge (“knowing-that”) can potentially end up inhibiting the ability to respond to situations (“knowing-how”). Daoist ethics is first and foremost centered around the cultivation of perceptual and non-cognitive capacities such that conceptual and theoretical experience do not obstruct the ability to understand and respond to problematic situations. Doctor of Philosophy 2021-03-09T06:18:17Z 2021-03-09T06:18:17Z 2020 Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy Bender, J. D. (2020). Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146748 10.32657/10356/146748 en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Humanities::Philosophy::Chinese
spellingShingle Humanities::Philosophy::Chinese
Bender, Jacob David
Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
description This study illustrates how ethics is possible without any appeal to antecedent “ethical principles” by drawing on Lao-Zhuang Daoism. What makes Lao-Zhuang Daoist ethics so different from prevailing accounts of the ethical life is that it provides an account of why persons should be apprehensive of being “principled” if they wanted to become morally sensitive human beings. These insights are in turn grounded in the Daoist’s naturalistic account of mind and experience, and this, as I detail, is vastly different from much of western philosophy. For the Daoist, the practical takes precedence to the theoretical. Their account of the ethical life illustrates how certain forms of abstract knowledge (“knowing-that”) can potentially end up inhibiting the ability to respond to situations (“knowing-how”). Daoist ethics is first and foremost centered around the cultivation of perceptual and non-cognitive capacities such that conceptual and theoretical experience do not obstruct the ability to understand and respond to problematic situations.
author2 Li Chenyang
author_facet Li Chenyang
Bender, Jacob David
format Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
author Bender, Jacob David
author_sort Bender, Jacob David
title Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
title_short Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
title_full Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
title_fullStr Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
title_full_unstemmed Ethics without principles in Lao-Zhuang Daoism
title_sort ethics without principles in lao-zhuang daoism
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146748
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