NTU Philosophical Review

The Lao Tzu has the distinction of having lots of directives and metaphors. This paper will make some modern analyses of these directives and metaphors. I will use theory of speech acts and modern theory of metaphors to do this study. I hope these analyses will help us a better understanding to the Lao Tzu.

Based on the comprehensive reading of the Analects, the paesentarticle tries to reconstruct the value system of Confucius.A brief desciption of this value system runs as follows. The sytem has a structure of three stages , each of which includes two levels of value respectively. We have then (l) the ego-centred stage with the values of living and development in the sense of worldly success; (2) the human interactive stage with the values of socialorder (maintained by laws and ritials) and human feelings (that is, human affections and moral virtues); and (3) the idealized stage with the values of non-selfishness (or non-selfishness) and the supreme good (or the sagehood).

Some feminists assume that there are distinctively female ways of knowing, and the oppressed, marginalized people (unquestionably including women) are epistemically privileged. Therefore there should be a different women's epistemology. The first part of this essay summarizes some important assumptions and the content of “Feminist Epistemology", while in the second part we argue that there are no reasons to consider these assumptions are warranted, and because of these assumptions the feministepistemology is even self-defeating. We also point out that another theoretical difficulty of feminist epistemology, the “ bias paradox", was not successfully solved by Louise M. Antony, therefore, we conclude that the feminist epistemology is incongruous and not a legitimate subfield of analytic philosophy.

This paper divided into four parts: (i) preface; (ii) the conception of "shue" in Lieh-Tzu; (iii) The conception in Toaistic school in the Pre-Chin; (iv) conclusion. The author deals with this concept based upon the recent studies - the book of Lieh-Tzu is not an apocrypha. Lieh-Tzu conceived that the saint is the highest stage of human life. The issue is how do one achieve it. His answer is “shue." It has two denotations --“kung-fu" (drill) and the mental stage. “Shue" is not only in the realm of language and conceptual, but also in that of practice. The method of practice is by intellectual reflection and meditation from the concentration of consciousness to that of spirit. Finally, it can unify his spirit with nothing. Nothing is “ tao" from the Taoistic point of view. Lieh: Tzu followed the method of the ancient Taoism in practice. But author contends that the method is derived from Lao-Tzu's “shue" of imitating “heaven" which is different from Kuan-Yin-Tzu's interpretation of it, that is, “chin" (stillness) of imitating “earth." From historical viewpoint, Lieh-Tzu dealed with the notion of “shue" in order to provide an answer to the meaninglessness of life of the people and disturbance of the society in the warring states period. The author believes that it is the right prescription for it.

Chuang-Tzu never deliberately emphasizes that he is a mystic. Yet , his writings are filled with mystical flavor. This motivates us to ask: Can the doctrine he puts forward be regarded as a type of Mysticism? Here , the meaning of the idea of “Yau/ Ecstatic Flowing" (遊) is investigated with the result of affirming his mystical tendency. Whereas , the notion of the “Creator " (造 物者) is also studied , and we draw the conclusion that Chuang-Tzu's mysticism is theistic in orientation , even though he also incorporates in his system the monistic and naturalistic elements which make his writings all the more spectacular.

While Lao-tzu in his discussion on tao gave evidence of unpreeedented originality, he did not make any contribution to the study of hsin. After the middle of the Warring States period, Chi-hsia Huang Lao daoism greatly promoted teachings and discussions on hsin and ch'i' thereby enriching ancient China's 'teachings of the inner sage'. Chi-hsia Huang Lao made the metaphysical tao concrete in the form of ching-ch'i, put it in relation to the human hsin and expressed the view that tao (ch'i) resides in the hsin('the lodging of ching-she'). This article expounds on the teachings of hsin-hsing, hsin-ch'i and hsin-hsing and furthermore explains the teaching of ching-ch'i and the method of concentrating ch'i.

The Historian Szu-ma Chien's comn1ents on Han Fei Zi:‘Emphasizing Xin Min Fa Shu, and basing his views on Huang-Lao.' Since Huang disappeared, and contents of two chapters of Han Fei Tzu, Interρretation of Lao and Analogy of Lao, were not quite the same of Lao Tzu, besides, a lot of his views of Xin Min Fa Shu were different from Lao Tzu, hence a lot of scholars suspected these comments on Tao and Te in Han Fei Tzu were actually the works of Taoists of Warring Era or West Han Dynasty. After Lao Tzu, according to my arguments, Taoists putted forward Zhuang Tzu and ‘Huang-Lao' (The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emρeror), both inherited and expanded the thoughts of Lao Tzu. Han Fei's thoughts inherited and expanded ‘Huang - Lao'. Interρretation of Lao and Analogy of Lao were inheritance and expansion of the thoughts of Lao Tzu too. His views of Xin Min Fa Shu may differ from thoughts of Lao Tzu and Zhuang Tzu, but were not far from thoughts of The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emperor of ‘Huang-Lao '. Therefore, Han Fei's arguments on Tao were in fact 'basing on Huang-Lao'. Scholars doubts arose from the disappearance of The Four Political Treatises of the Yellow Emρeror, and fromtheir misunderstanding of 'Huang-Lao'.

Use quotations from Chuang-Tsu, this article argues that: (1) Chuang-Tsu considered “chi" the basic component of all tagible existences, an element that does not in itself consist of any driving force. The driving force behind the formation/ extinction of tangible existence is “tien" (or the creator). (2) Since “chi" is everlasting, there exists no absolute nihility in the universe. The formation of tangible existences is therefore not a process from “nothingness" to “existence". (3) We have no means to comprehendthe reason and purpose of existence. Consequently, we can not, and should not, define or criticize the meaning or value of any existence. Further, the existence of human beings, like all other tangible existences, is by no means significant. (4) Since there is no significance in human existence and it is not possible to create any meaning through the process of existence, the only purpose of life is not to impair the current existence. (5) However, as individual life, unlike “chi", is not eternal, death is inevitable.Chuang-Tsu hence attempted to ease the anxiety of nihilism through asserting that “chi" transforms among different existences. It is nevertheless doubtful that such reasoning can effectively unravel human anxiety over death.

Theonomous ethics, an important theory of religious ethics, has invited numerous attacks from modern religious critics. The paper begins with a scrutiny of the main ideas of theonomous ethics and of the five opposing.The second part of the paper deals with the main arguments of these religious critics. First of all, the problems of theodicy will be addressed from three aspects, namely, the general moral intuition, the basic position of teleological ethics, and the basic principIes of theories of definition and reference. The discussion is meant to illustrate that whereas the theory of theonomous ethics needs to be revised, the arguments given by the religious critics are not impeccable either. Some flaws in their arguments are listedand discussed in the paper.The following part is devoted to the assessment of the position of theonomous ethics in the traditions of Judaism, Islamism and Christianity. It is discovered that theonomous ethics not only does not belong to the main stream of the three religions, but also is criticized by dominating theologies. We can infer that taking theonomous ethics as the target of their attacking fires, the religious critics actually commit the mistake of “strawman argumentation." Basically the ethics of the three religions are rationalistic rather than theonomous in nature.The concluding part of the paper analyzes the autonomous characteristics of religious ethics with the focus on biblical ethics. The significance of the Ten Commandments, for example, can be fully understood in terms of rationality. As a conclusion the paper points out that autonomous rationality is the last criterion for biblical ethics.

This paper discusses the central ideas of Huang-lao thought and inquires into its origin and development. At the time "Lietzu, false accusations and its main ideas" was being reprinted, the author rearrenged several important materials, resulting in this article. According to the Shi-chi, pre-Ch' in Huang-ti and Lao-tzu were not named together, the term 'taoism', originating in the early years of the Han dynasty, referred exclusively to Lao-tzu's ch'ing-ching wu-wei and combined the essentials of the yin-yangschool , confucianism, mohists, school of names and legalists. Afterwards, Liu Hsiang wrote that the Lei-tzu had its origins in Huang-ti and Lao-tzu; the work was subsequently also classified as ‘taoism.' The ancient saying that Huang-lao was based on the teachings of Huang-ti and Lao-tzu first appears in the Lie-tzu, which mentions the now lost Book of Huang-ti. The ancient saying that it was written by Huang-ti is clearly a hypothesis, but fragments are quoted in the Lie-tzu and Chuang-tzu and the figuresand historical facts mentioned can make up for what is left out in history.Huang-lao thought is extremely rich and deals with cosmology, the way of heaven, the way of man, psychology, nurture of life etc. The documents excavated in 1973 are extremely helpful in the author's understanding of Huang-lao dao-shu, provide new evidence for its relation with hsing-ming, but also leave open many questions.