The Idea of the Philosophy of Education by Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu
Resource
國立臺灣大學哲學論評, 16, 001-020
Journal
國立臺灣大學哲學論評
Journal Issue
16
Pages
001-020
Date Issued
1993-01
Date
1993-01
Author(s)
Woo, K.Y.
Abstract
The purpose of the Taoist education is to create a perfect person. A perfect person means here "Ultimate man, Spirit-like man, Sage-minded man". The way to educate a man to be perfect by Lao-tzu is to "Convey his instructions without the use of speech".(行不言之教); for Chuang-tzu however is to use the Allegories(寓言之教). Both are the via negativa compared to the Confucian method, which seems to be via positiva.
It is wellknown that both Tao-te-ching and the Book of Chuang-tzu use the way of negation, which denegates graduately their desires, their sensations, even their own existences in order to transcend themselves to unificate with Tao, the ultimate cosmic principle. The perfect man means here the man who engages union with Tao.
Not just like the confucianits, who maintain the necessities of training all the virtues to cultivate oneself to be a saint or a sage, the Taoists bracket out of all particular virtues, make focus only in the "Union with Tao" as the only virtue. Here the "Union with Tao" has both the cosmological and ontological meaning.
The author tries to explain the above-mentioned idea in three main parts. The first part deals with the historical development of the via negative from Laotzu to Chuang-tzu. The second part deepens its form to the essential contents of this educational idea. Finally, in the third part the contemporary meaning of the Taoist educational theory will be discussed.
Type
journal article