What is Daoist Philosophy? The History and Critical Relevance of Daoist Ideas (Philosophy Lecture) 

This is EXACTLY what I wanted

"Moreover, I did not know whether the honor belonged to the position or myself. If it belonged to the position, it was nothing to me; if it belonged to me, it had nothing to do with the position." That's a memorable line.

I've read Tao Te Ching and I understood nothing, not knowing the culture and being a mature enough reader not to impose my own ideas onto it. Many are eager to compare Eastern and Western thought, but most of such efforts are of little value. Doing this in a constructive manner requires someone who's well (and I mean well) versed in both, and without prejudice towards either. Such scholars are very rare and videos like this one are much needed.

This is mind blowingly good - I love the way these concepts are all woven together

it resembles story from Rome about women with a case to Emperor who didn't want to listen saying he is busy with emperor's matters and she said then stop being emperor and he did for a moment to listen to her ❤

I absolutely love how you've explained the difference. To the point. This has been extremely helpful!

Over these months, this has become one of my favorite youtube channels. Absolutely loved the lecture. I am reading Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" and some concepts of Taoism are mentioned and debated as well as some christian philosophy. Another book I was reading is "The Weirdest People in the world" which talks about a lot of things (it's one of those "sapiens" books) the main question being "why western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic evolved the way they did?". Along the book he talks about the distiction between individualistic societies (western) and "tightly social-regulated" societies (eastern). Anyway, I dropped the book, but it would be nice to see you talking about some ideas presented there. Anyways, please keep posting these lectures, I enjoyed very much.

An aspect of pretending that was slightly touched upon is its childlike approach. Just like a child pretends to be a queen or king. What’s interesting there is that the child is not sincerely engaging in the role. Because the child isn’t clear what the role refers to. So the child is imagining the role according to some empirical knowledge but is also inventing a large part of the role themselves. So their engagement with the role isn’t mimicry or subjugation of self but a creative reimagining according the preferences of the individual. Genuineness is spontaneous. The embodiment of the role comes from the pleasure of performance. The role isn’t predetermined by socio-cultural factors because the role has been reimagined so that there is only that unique role which exists only in that performance by that individual. In contrast with mature people who are expected to preform roles sincerely and accurately to such a degree that they will be judged by the quality of their performance. Roles are predetermined by certain socio-cultural expectations and reimagining is not generally tolerated. If you’re a good person then you ought to be a good friend, good student, good colleague, good parent, good citizen etc. Genuineness is replaced by sincerity. One does not have to like or agree with roles to perform them well. You may not like or want to help your son but family’s family and family always look out for each other.

Thanks for posting this, a really nice gateway to chinese philosophy for those of us who aren't yet very familiar with it :)

Thank you so much!!! Can't wait to listen to this lecture!

Appreciated, thanks! I've always been very fond of the Zhuangzi, it's been providing me with a great deal of comfort.

Wow, that was really approachable! Thank you for this lecture!

Very inspiring! Interestingly, Jung makes a similar point: That over-identification with the social roles aka the persona inflates the ego at the cost of a contact with the Self. As a part of individuation, the ego needs to learn to differentiate the ego from the role. This differentiation is the key to develop the inner freedom needed to discover and actualize the Self, to becoming oneself. Still, successful individuation is seen as complementary, perfecting both in synergy.

I saw the announcement of an online lecture on daoism but I couldn't get into it. I am so glad you posted it. Thank you.

He delivers!!!!!!

Excellent discussion and questions! Learned even more about my favorite philosophy! I hope you keep doing more videos about Taoism!

Thank you very much for this extremely interesting exposé. As someone who lives in Canada and has had a lot of interaction with Chinese people, teaching English & French, and having close contact with diverse families or Asian friends, I can now see how Confucius principles have influenced people’s lives. And as someone who has made repeated efforts to improve my understanding of Chinese culture and language, it would be great if Chinese characters referring to such concepts as social roles, peace , ease could be associated with Pin Yin equivalent. Thank you again from someone trying to learn mandarin with pin yin only 😊

Thank you so much for the enlightning lecture and discussion. It was very interesting for me as an actor and teacher for acting. When I started to learn Tai Chi some years ago I found to use some of its central ideas for 20 years without knowing it to be Tai Chi. Today I learned that I was teaching for years an idea of Daoism to my actors, also without knowing it to be Daoism. As a small child all possible personalities are in us. Children connect easily with their potential while playing. When we grow up and become adults society wants us (and needs us) to be predictable. So we give up a huge amount of roles and live only a few of them. After some time we believe to be no more than that narrow selection of our personality. So many I worke with feel the unease of their narrow day-to-day exinstance. They have a vague memory that there was once more than functioning. To go on stage means to become a child again and to detect and to getting in touch with the huge amount of possibilities sleeping in us under a very thin surface. It means to realise that you are playing a role not only on stage and that you can decide who you are. (What isn‘t as easy as it sounds.) I am very glad I can connect this insights with the teachings of Daoism. You made my day!

More full lectures please ❤

What a blessing. Home today with a flu, this is gonna be just what the doctor ordered

Professor Moeller, the most recent episode of "westworld" (fairly large hbo show) is titled zhuangzi and plays with many daoist themes. just commenting in case it were a good idea for some more youtube content

Such a valuable video, thank you sincerely ;)

Great video

Awesome!

Love the foreshadowing. Also the Chuang Tzu is the most approachable text on daoism for anyone interested, I think. There's a good audiobook reading of Burton Watson's translation of it on RU-vid.

Fantastic. Now I just need to make available 2 hours.

Thank you very much for sharing this lecture. I'm wondering perhaps in future videos, if you could talk a little bit more about the 'ease' and '安‘ in Daoist philosophy as it seems to me that they can be viewed, or interpreted as another form of 'order' as well, similar perhaps as in Stoicism's natural law? or as in, everyone should take their natural spot and be at 'ease'. And by challenging a hierarchical order advocated in Confucianism, is it in some ways advocating for an anti-hierarchical order (or can be used as such), manifested as 'ease' for individual in an ideal situation, almost like the myth of free market in modern times? I'm asking because it appears that regardless of whichever orders (or no orders) philosophers feel the society should be organized around accordingly, sooner or later the powerful would find a way to mold and twist the idea into some forms of oppression - or perhaps that's the flow itself?

Great video! It is good to see some quality Chinese philosophy on youtube. I have a couple questions that I would love to hear your thoughts on. How does Zhaungzi’s insight into the “genuine pretending” of roles or advocacy of “ease” differ from buddhist notions of the empty nature of the self and the strive to achieve the ultimate “easy” state of nirvana? Also, this is a little off topic but how does Mozi fit into this landscape between Daoism and Confucianism? He rejected certain Confucian narratives about social hierarchies but also strongly advocates for his own narrative of non-aggression and universal love. Does daoism also view Mozi as an over commitment to his ideals and particular social roles?

Now I can understand danmei novels better 😌

I agree with most of the comments: A wonderful lecture offering a fresh perspective on (ancient) philosophy. (Cams ok, Mic better, rec level should be adjusted though). Ty!

Thanks, this is going to be great. Edit: it was!

Good video thanks

Wonderful lecture, thank you! I found it very interesting that you referred back to Freud, while throughout the whole talk I kept thinking how well Jungian Psychology explains all of it. The difference between the confucian identifying with the role and the daoist playing the role, and the "unease" that the identification produces, that's the neurosis, the state of not realizing that your Persona is not your Self. The "ease" is "totality", when the person is able to naturally flow from a Persona to the next, shedding mask after mask, pretending, playing the role, meaning psychologically conforming themselves in conformity with the environment presented.

My apologies if you have previously answered either of these questions, but as I listen to this lecture, I cannot help but wonder: do you have thoughts on Heideggers “The Question Concerning Technology,” and what do you make of the challenge phenomenology made to the truth/appearance dichotomy in European philosophy-does it perhaps approach the order/disorder distinction in your opinion? I ask because I am thinking of hundun, and the eventual development of phenomenology (and it’s rejection as a system) in Fanon, Arendt, and Foucault (the last of whom you mentioned near the start).

As I listen to this remarkably clear lecture I can’t help thinking of Charlie Chaplin as a brother to Chuang Tse, and this nowhere more apparent than in the opening scene of City Lights where a stiff contingent of the pillars of the community are gathered to unveil a statue which represents the cherished values of Greek antiquity. As the veil is lifted,There is the tramp snugly asleep in the arms of the noble statue…surprised, he tips his hat again and again, and as he clumsily descends he turns his butt cheekishly towards the city nabobs…and impales the butt of his torn trousers on the sword of the statue of the noble warrior. The crowd, in their formal costumes, is wild with fury and fist shaking….when the national anthem begins playing, and everyone is paralysed with frozen attention….Chaplin frees himself and by placing his face next to the hand of another noble statue, thumbs his nose without thumbing his nose. He lets the statue do it. The whole scene is a hilarious mockery of those frozen in their roles of power, patriotism, prestige, and military zest. The tramp points his rear at all of them and dances his way along with the torch of chaos and doubt. We who are watching feel immense ease! (Btw, I think that Chaplin’s frequent use of the butt-taunt is a reminder that the distinction between humans and animals is arbitrary….in the view of Ernst Becker, we have to always come back to our mortal physicality…we are “gods with anuses.” That arbitrary distinction between humans and animals, and humans and humans, has endured from Confucius and the Greeks and the Judaea- Christian times until today…with great harm along the way.)

makes me thing of georg simmels perspective on how the individual conflict with society as inevitable aspect of modernity

can you do a video about your thoughts on Wittgenstein ideas??

This lecture made me understand the way some Nazis used to explain his horrendous actions and the ease in which they lived. Applied to the current times, it explains the decision of former world chess champion M. Carlsen to not defend his title and his role. But in the first case it makes killing look like a banality. What an interesting subject!

Just when I was getting back into the topic.

Disorder is a Medical Term as well in the West as is Dis-ease.

What English translations do you recommend for the Zhuangzi and Tao Te Ching?

This can be expanded on our thinking when we analyse, read, approach new things we may also be constrained by the established tracks of thinking and assumptions the rigidness is also this too strong attachment to own beliefs narrowing our experience of world the same way our mind builds illusions, fake representation of world around us with utility of our general goals taking shortcuts taoism is saying to don't keep attached too seriously to own limited fragmentary habitual truth about world especially in communication with others remembering that our thinking differs by default

can you recommend any german translations of daoist texts/books?

Professor Moeller, what are your thoughts on the practice of bonsai or penjing? or could you make a video on this? You see these practices having deep roots in the "zen culture" and Taoism, however, I feel that these are contradictory and go against the teachings. They seem more related to Confucianism. Similarly, to the Death of Hundun we're forcing our image onto something living blissfully. or am I misunderstanding this story? I love looking at Bonsai trees and our manicuring of nature into gardens (even golf courses are things of beauty to me). But am I wrong to enjoy these things and maybe even want to engage in the ancient practice?

Some questions: is it easier to experience ease for some roles than others? Wage slave than professor, and what about roles like soldiers or criminals? You mentioned Freud, if I understand him correctly than beneath the surface we are egotistical assholes, do you agree with him? And how to find that ease when the social pressure is to behave authenticly? It's paradoxical to me, because if you don't act authenticly you feel unease.

Learn the ways of domestication but understand the roots of our humanity.

It is amazing how Daoism is a particular instantiation of the secondary cause; the meta- or supra- cosmic principle of reality itself; Heaven and Earth found in Genesis 1:1

Is the difference between whatever, not what truth is but controlling what people believe what truth is?

Do you think there is a psychoanalytic aspect to the Zhuangzi? Especially in the story of the “age of shennong”? “They knew their mothers but did not know their fathers” could be analogous to the eodipal complex as the children were never met with the castration anxiety of the father symbol as the patriarchal family roles were not present. Their desire was never socialised because their desire for oneness with the (m)other was never severed. their was never any need for desire to be repressed and put toward more socially acceptable paths ie in the way the Confucian role ethics demanded. This is why it was the age of “utmost vitality” as people were free to desire as they wished in a way that was non-alienating and non-neurotic as desire was free from any subversive forces like social morality and guilt?

are these slides available anywhere?

first

About 70th

I saw a lot of similarities with what I take to be the central message of the Bhagavad Gita.

5:20 So what you're saying is that Taoism is a sort of reverse entropy philosophy.

14:52

This reversal of oppositions sounds so much as postmodernism. (sorry for eurocentrism)

can Jean-Jacques Rousseau be described as daoist?

If roles are authentic, sorta like a truthful lie, then how can we discern the truth about them?

Am in no way accusing you or anyone else of anything untoward but this topic just brings up a big question to me. How do the ccp reconcile daoism or confuscionism with the Auygher genocide and the upcoming invasion of Taiwan? Or do they just put an information fire wall up between the people and all the actions that contradict the states presented 'philosophy'?

> truth-appearance distinction, Is it then fair to say that conspiracy theories are a grassroots philosophical tradition with a direct lineage from Greek philosophy?

This early "clash of culture" narrative (Northern culturalism vs. Southern primitivism, so to speak) only seems part of the story for me. Didn´t Rujia and Daojia both hold to an "golden age" utopia? Didn´t they both criticize the disorder of their times? Didn´t both aspire to live in accordance with the Heaven, respectively the Dao? Didn´t "religious" Daoism cultivate rites, rituals, ritual-like performances themselves (and it may be older than so called "philosophical Daoism" ... and, yes I know, some dont´t like this distinction between Dàojia and Dàoxué, anyway)? That is to say: There seems also to be much "common ground" (even across all of the "Six Schools" of the axial-age). What´s more, the concept of the wúwéi-ruler, who somehow, like magic, orders all under heaven (or at least his dominion or field of influence) by "not doing" (however this may be interpreted ... an exciting field for studies), led some Daoists into the camp of the Legalists. In view of this, Daoism can also be seen critically (or inherently ambivalent): not onyl light, but also shadow... Moreover, in sociology role-theories are rather regarded as "theories of middle range" (R.K. Merton), which have some heuristic value, but also seem too reductive to describe/mirror the human anthropology (or conditio humana) wholly correctly. In matters of egology, and so forth, other approaches/models should be considered, too, in addition (I personally, e.g., like Ernst E. Boesch´s symbolic action theory, it has, i.m.o., much general explanatory power regarding bio-socio-cultural "interbeing"). NB.: The story of Hundun can also be interpreted on a "deeper" level, so to speak, as part of an Daoist "epistemo-ontology", which already points into the direction of the later, reductive-constructivistic "idealism" (prajnaparamita, "liberation via transcendental wisdom") of the Sinitic Mahayana (which namely in it´s Chán/Zen-variants seems to show important Daoist influence, but that´s another story). Anyway, it´s nice to see classic Chinese philosophy solidely discussed in this corner of the internet. Many thanks.

West/Plato:Heaven/earth East/Dao:Heaven/man

If Daoism is Anarchist... Then Buddhism is Socialist...

Alot of words say little.