Daoist Conception of Time: Is Time Merely a Mental Construction?
Journal
Dao
Journal Volume
19
Journal Issue
4
Pages
583-599
Date Issued
2020-12-01
Author(s)
Abstract
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V. There have been very few studies of the Daoist conception of time in either the West or the East. The only explicit study on this topic in the English literature is David Chai’s (Chai 2014). Chai maintains that “human measured time” manifested in the myriad things in the Daoist universe is merely a mental construction, whereas the authentic time is cosmological time, which consists of neither an A-series (which is ordered by nonreducible pastness, presentness, and futurity) nor a B-series (which is ordered by earlier-than relations) but something without order and directionality. In this article, I start with Daoist texts (i.e., Dao De Jing 道德經 and Zhuangzi 莊子) about fundamental reality and time. I then explain and analyze Chai’s interpretations of these texts. Lastly, I argue that Chai’s interpretations violate an important Daoist principle. In addition, the idea that human measured time is merely a mental construction is not the best available interpretation of the texts.
Subjects
A-series | B-series | Daoism | Presentness | Temporal passage | Time
Type
journal article