Turner as a Daoist Sage Dockstader, Jason
Journal of aesthetics and phenomenology,
07/2020, Letnik:
7, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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In this paper, I provide a cross-cultural comparison between the life and work of the English land- and seascape painter, J.M.W. Turner, and the conception of aesthetic experience and artisanship ...found in classical Chinese Daoism. I argue that Turner exhibits certain key features of the Daoist sage. By developing some recent interpretations of his life and work, I claim that Turner, especially in his later seascapes, exhibited an approach to aesthetic experience that involves the artist's total absorption into and identification with the natural process with which he is concerned. Next, I show how the Daoist approach to aesthetics and artisanship similarly focuses on the artist's capacity to identify with the power and source of the world they aim to aesthetically experience. The central motif in both certain of Turner's later work and the Daoist approach to aesthetic creativity is the figure of the vortex. By becoming the center of a natural vortex, and even the vortex that is nature itself, the Turnerian and Daoist artist experiences and embodies the wisdom of accessing and identifying with nature's omnipotence. Such wisdom is thus expressed in the artwork by emphasizing the fundamental dynamism and vagueness of all things. I conclude by claiming that if one reads Turner as a Daoist sage, then a novel model for the aesthetic experience and appreciation of nature can be offered. I call this "the identification model" and recommend it being slotted into our taxonomy of contemporary options within environmental aesthetics.
Wang, M.-F., 2022. Proposing a new oceanic culture-based creative product design method to construct and deconstruct products of the Austronesian Aborigines. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(2), ...458–470. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The old concepts of both Chinese and Western philosophies concerning the deconstruction and construction of people, matters, time, places, objects, and phenomena appear to be overly theoretical in terms of modern research. There are always some gaps between the concept and practice, which prevent the solution of the crucial problems that designers encounter when deconstructing and constructing culture. Laozi's philosophy can contribute to the different cognition of culture in various aspects; therefore, this study proposes the theory of an oceanic culture-based creative product design method by introducing philosophical and mathematical methods, and applying the concept of an oceanic culture-based creative product design method to deconstruct and construct cultural elements, as well as implementing the design of the Austronesian aborigines cultural and creative products with form construction, fuzzy evaluation, and the Attract, Converse, Transact (A.C.T.) model. The study aims to solve the problems designers encounter during oceanic culture-based creative product design by utilizing the design mode to transform the culture into products step by step, and implementing the production process into actual practice. For obtaining better accuracy, the questionnaire in this study was completed by Taiwanese people, Tao residents living on Orchid Island, professional designers, and design exhibitions audience. With a high satisfaction rating, the pepper salt jar, designed by means of the method purposed in this study, was proved to have met its target. To sum up, the design method purposed by this study was not only verified as a useful and efficient technique for oceanic culture-based creative product design, but also for enhancing the efficiency of both design and product development.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The present paper deals with a specific argumentative feature found in the Laozi, namely, “interlocking parallel style” or IPS. It shows how knowledge of this structure can be helpful for the ...understanding and interpretation of the text. At the same time, the paper demonstrates that, in some cases, rigorously imposing IPS can be counterproductive. To this end, the paper analyses Laozi 29, the commentary to it penned by Wang Bi, as well as a close parallel in the fifth chapter of the Wenzi.
The Motherboard of Myriad Things Wheeler, Billy
Azijske študije (Spletna izd.),
01/2022, Letnik:
10, Številka:
1
Journal Article
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Machines, instruments and tools offer many benefits, but according to the classical Daoists—Laozi and Zhuangzi—they can also interfere with living a life in harmony with nature. Despite this, the ...Zhuangzi offers numerous stories of individuals who use technologies whilst exemplifying the virtues of a sage, although how this is achieved is not well understood. I examine two recent interpretations and argue that they are problematic on both philosophical and interpretative grounds. In their place I offer a new solution based on comparing Zhuangzi with recent studies of the effects of the internet on the way we think.
The “center” is a key concept in early Chinese philosophy. While readings of the Laozi 老子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 often rely on concepts of “nature” and the “natural”, this article proposes the “center” as ...an interpretive key that informs discussion of contemporary issues while remaining faithful to the core concerns of the texts. While both texts use the “center” to promote a philosophy of moderation, in the Laozi, “holding to the center” (shou zhong 守中) refers to a focus on one’s inner center to counteract the dangers of the external, whereas the Zhuangzi speaks of a centeredness between inner cultivation and outward socialization. In the Laozi, we examine images of one-, two- and three-dimensional centers as well as the bodily practice of focusing on the inner stomach rather than the outward-looking eyes. Our discussion of the Zhuangzi focuses on occupying the “center” (zhongyang 中央) between extreme inward and outward modes of being. The result is a philosophy of moderation that fosters a sense of humility, balance, and impartiality, cautioning against a drive for overreaching solutions for all humanity, and tempering attempts to conform to extreme “naturalness” or reject all “artificiality”.
Two long-standing and fiercely debated issues remain central to contemporary studies on Chinese philosophy. The first concerns whether there was an early tradition of metaphysics, and the second ...concerns whether there was an early tradition of Daoism. This study engages with both issues simultaneously, since if there was a tradition of early Chinese metaphysics, then it is identifiable with Huang-Lao Daoism, and if Huang-Lao Daoism constituted an early Chinese tradition, then it is identifiable with the tradition of Chinese metaphysics. This study engages with these issues in two parts. The first part examines Western and Chinese perspectives concerning what is entailed by claims that there was or was not an early tradition of Chinese metaphysics and that there was or was not an early tradition identifiable as Huang-Lao Daoism. The second part is an analysis of contemporary Chinese scholarship that, deeply grounded in the growing collection of early Chinese excavated manuscripts, both affirms the dynamic existence of early Chinese metaphysics and the vibrant existence of an early tradition identifiable with Huang-Lao Daoism. Throughout, this study attempts to concurrently build on the work of contemporary Chinese scholars for reading certain early Chinese writings often held as Daoist, but instead of agreeing with them that Laozi’s Daodejing represents an early blossoming of metaphysics, it argues that his work is grounded in an originally non-metaphysical philosophy of the Dao that Huang-Lao Daoism transformed into a metaphysics, thereby originating the tradition of early Chinese metaphysics.
Lao-Zhuang thought and the Laozi in particular is frequently interpreted as providing a critique of the dominant social values of its time. In English language literature, this often entails ...utilizing thinkers from the Western tradition of philosophic critique from Kant onwards, thereby obscuring the critical methods unique to the text itself. Chinese language literature, on the other hand, rarely uses the semantics of philosophic critique which thereby prevents the text from contributing its own unique voice to the discourse of critique. This paper attempts to put the Laozi into discourse with the wider tradition of philosophic critique, broadening the tradition with a unique “Chinese voice”, but allowing it to speak in its own terms according to the text itself, the commentarial tradition, and modern scholarship.
Throughout the pages of the Daodejing, Laozi reveals a complex conception of justice. Understanding it demands that we strictly distinguish the four central notions around which it is structured: the ...Constant Dao, the Dao of Humans, the Dao of Heaven, and Heaven and Earth. After situating Laozi’s conception of justice in the opening section, this study then examines the ancient ritual background from which he injected innovative content into these four notions before moving on to a textual analysis of their deployment throughout the Daodejing. In contrast to other modern Western analyses of the text’s philosophy that focus on the naturalism of the Constant Dao while disregarding the theism of the Dao of Heaven, this study attempts to re-envision the text’s complementarity of the religious and the philosophical.
A surprising feature of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance pamphlets is their appeal to a foundational classical Chinese text, the Laozi (otherwise known as the Daodejing), to buttress their ...critique of fascism and authoritarianism. I argue that from the perspective of a 1942 educated readership, the act of quoting the Laozi functioned as a subtle and pointed nod to anti-fascist intellectuals in pre-war Germany, many of whom had interpreted the Laozi as an anti-authoritarian and pacifist text. To a sympathetic reader, the Laozi therefore constituted an apt reference point for critiquing National Socialism. I then introduce a complication for this wartime reading of the Laozi from the perspective of its ambiguous reception in ancient Chinese political thought. I more specifically discuss an ancient line of interpretation of the Laozi that points in the direction of authoritarianism - in stark tension with the White Rose message of passive resistance and popular revolt.
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