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The Ethical Message in Huang-Lao Manuscripts: Applying the Laozian Living Riddle as a "Model of Modeling"
- Philosophy East and West
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 74, Number 2, April 2024
- pp. 233-256
- 10.1353/pew.2024.a925191
- Article
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Abstract:
The objective in this article is to apply a Daoist model of an ethic derived from the Laozi on writings of the Huang Lao tradition to offer a unique Daoist cosmically derived ethic in its own terms. Having our point of departure in the Laozi we refer to its paradoxical language as a living riddle that is inherent in the tradition, and as such it suggests a "model of modeling." We find this model in Laozi 25, according to which self-so (ziran 自然) serves as foundation for an ethic that is neither dichotomizing nor resting on human moral conventions, but serves rather as a guiding philosophy of living. On this basis we explore the question of an ethic in the Huang Lao tradition.