Taoist Ethics
Taoist Ethics
Taoist Ethics
Abstract
Recently, earth ethics or environmental ethics has become a
popular filed of research. But there is lack of a cosmological and
non-anthropocentric philosophical framework for earth ethics. In this
essay we try to fill this gap by developing a Taoist framework.
Starting with the later Heidegger's transformation of the four-fold, we
will first of all clarify the essence of earth. After pinpointing the
eco-ethical character of such an approach, we will show how a Taoist
framework can be achieved by reactivating its fundamental principle
that letting things return to their proper places. This should also
deepen the exploration of the ethical implications of Heidegger's way
of thinking.
Cf.: Wing-tsit Chan (1963: 147). According to Paul Shih-yi Hsiao, these
lines in the Tao Te Ching are Heidegger's favourite. Cf.: Paul Shih-yi Hsiao
(1987: 100).
3
11
13
out for the dwelling of man." (1971a: 220) For him, "man
dwells by spanning the 'on the earth' and the 'beneath the
sky.'"(1971a: 223) Such an interplay between the "on" and
"beneath" clearly reveals that man is "an earthly being." (1971a:
223) Moreover, the span gives rise to the "dimension". He also
wrote, "The nature of the dimension is the meting out - which is
lightened and so can be spanned - of the between: the upward to
the sky as well as the downward to earth." (1971a: 220) This
concept of "meting out" can well direct our attention to the
following thesis of the Tao Te Ching: "Yet it is Tao alone which
skilfully provides for all and brings them to perfection."
(Wing-tsit Chan, 1963: 160) As a matter of fact, the Chinese
word tai etymologically means to give and to grant. Furthermore,
Heidegger said, "We leave the nature of the dimension without a
name." (1971a: 220) This statement can be well regarded as a
paraphrasing of the following dictum of Lao Tzu: "Tao is
hidden and nameless." (Wing-tsit Chan, 1971a: 160) In this way,
we can discover that when Heidegger employed the term
dimension, he aimed to address Being itself which is
comparable to the Tao. Certainly, the term dimension has the
advantage in more directly demonstrating the role of
Appropriation (Ereignis) as the measuring norm.
Heidegger further pointed out, "Man's dwelling depends
on an upward-looking measure-taking of the dimension, in
which the sky belongs just as the earth." (1971a: 221)
Accordingly, "earth is not earth without the measure of the
heavens." (Bruce Foltz, 1996: 163) Like for the Taoists,
Heidegger claimed that though man receives the measure from
earth, "Man, as man, has always measured himself with and
against something heavenly." (1971a: 221) Moreover, "The
godhead is the 'measure' with which man measures out his
dwelling, his stay on the earth beneath the sky." (1971a: 221) As
a consequence, "This measure-taking not only takes the measure
of the earth, ge, and accordingly it is no more
15
17
Martin Heidegger (1979: 214). Here I follow Bruce Foltz's translation. Cf.:
Bruce Foltz (1996: 168).
10
11
Martin Heidegger (1973: 109); Martin Heidegger (1976: 134). The original
citation comes from Adorno's Aesthetische Theorie.
19
12
is crucial for the saving of the earth is that it is only when man
is brought back to his own proper topos that he permits things to
return to their own topos. At this juncture, one can well recall
Chuang Tzu's famous fish-metaphor. According to Chuang Tzu,
it is only when a fish is swimming in the river that it is free.
Indeed, "swimming in the river" is the boundary with which the
fish begins its presencing. (Wing-tsit Chan, 1963: 209-10)
As a matter of fact, according to Heinrich Petzet's report,
after the lecture given in Bremen in 1930, in his friend Keller's
home, "Heidegger began to recite the legend of the joy of the
fishes... With the interpretation he offered of that legend,
Heidegger unexpectedly drew closer to them than he had with
his difficult lecture, which remained inaccessible to most of
them." (1993: 18-9) As a result, like now "swimming in the
water" is the boundary for the fish, "poetically dwells on the
earth" is the boundary for man.
Finally, in The End of Philosophy Heidegger also
declared, "The unnoticeable law of the earth preserves the earth
in the sufficiency of the emerging and perishing of all things in
the allotted sphere of the possible which everything follows, and
yet nothing knows."(Heidegger, 1973: 109) This statement
indicates in what way earth ethics is possible. At this juncture, it
also points to a new way to attain Lao Tzu's gaol that "Earth
obtained the One and became tranquil."(Wing-tsit Chan, 1963:
159) More importantly, Heidegger's speech of the unnoticeable
law of the earth clearly shows the non-anthropocentric character
of such an earth ethical framework. In addition, his articulation
of the fourfold clearly shows in what sense this approach is
cosmological.
Philosophically, the basic spirit of the Taoist framework
for earth ethics is expressed in the principle that "letting things
be in their own places." Correlatively, poetry has a special role
21
13
References
Chan, Wing-cheuk. (1992). "On the Controversy between
Wang Pi and Kuo Hsiang" (In Chinese). Tunghai
Journal, Vol. 33.
Chan, Wing-cheuk. (1998). "On the Affinity between
Chinese and German Philosophy: Heidegger, Taoism
and T'ien-t'ai Buddhism". Read at The Tenth Meeting
of Gesellschaft fuer Asiatische Philosophie.
Marienthal.
Chan, Wing-tsit. (1963). A Source Book in Chinese
Philosophy Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Shih-yi Hsiao (1987: 100) "Heidegger and Our
Translation of the Tao Te Ching." Heidegger and
Asian Thought, ed. Graham Parkes.
Honolulu:
Hawaii University Press.
Foltz, Bruce. (1996). Inhabiting The Earth: Heidegger,
Environmental Ethics, and the Metaphysics of Nature.
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press.
Heidegger, Martin. (1954). Vortraege und Aufsaetze.
Pfullingen: Neske.
Heidegger, Martin. (1962). Being and Time, trans. John
Macquirrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper
and Row.
23
Heidegger,
Martin.
(2000).
Zu
Hoelderlin.
Griechenlanddreisen. Frankfurt/M. Klostermann,
2000.
Petzet, Heinrich. (1993). Encounters and Dialogues with
Martin Heidegger (1929-1976), trans. Parvis and
Kenneth Maly. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hsiao, Paul Shih-yi. (1987). "Heidegger and Our
Translation of the Tao Te Ching", in Heidegger and
Asian Thought, ed. Graham Parkes. Honolulu: Hawaii
University Press.
Marx, Werner. (1987). Is There a Measure on Earth? trans.
Thomas Nenon and Reginald Lilly. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
May, Reinhard. (1996). Heidegger's Hidden Sources: East
Asian Influence on His Work, trans. Graham Parkes.
London: Routledge.
Padrutt, Hanspeter. (1992). "Heidegger and Ecology," in
Heidegger and Ecological Thinking, ed. Ladelle
McWhorter. Kirksville, Missouri: Thomas Jefferson
University Press.
Tucker, Mary. (1996). "Confucianism and Ecology: Patterns
of Correspondence in the Universe." Read at An
International Colloquium on the Future of Chinese
Thought. Toronto.
25