The Penumbra Unbound: The Neo-Taoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang / Edition 1

by Brook Ziporyn

Overview

The Penumbra Unbound is the first English language book-length study of the Neo-Taoist thinker Guo Xiang (d. 312 C.E.), commentator on the classic Taoist text, the Zhuangzi. The author explores Guo's philosophy of freedom and spontaneity, explains its coherence and importance, and shows its influence on later Chinese philosophy, particularly Chan Buddhism. The implications of his thought on freedom versus determinism are also considered in comparison to several positions advanced in the history of Western philosophy, notably those of Spinoza, Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte, and Hegel. Guo's thought reinterprets the classical pronouncements about the Tao so that it in no way signifies any kind of metaphysical absolute underlying appearances, but rather means literally "nothing." This absence of anything beyond appearances is the first premise in Guo's development of a theory of radical freedom, one in which all phenomenal things are "self-so," creating and transforming themselves without depending on any justification beyond their own temporary being.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791456620
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	03/17/2003
Series:	SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Brook Ziporyn is Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PART I

Introduction

The Classical Chinese Philosophical Background

An Overview of Guo Xiang's Philosophical Project

The Problem of Spontaneity and Morality in Earlier Xuanxue

Guo's Solution:The Image of Traces

The Dangers of Traces

PART II

Interactivity Without Traces: "Vanishing (Into) Things"

The Unification of Independence and Interdependence

PART III

Lone-Transformation 99

The Unity of Activity and Nonactivity

APPENDIX A

Guo Xiang's Use of the Term Xing: The Inherency of Change and the Confluence of Chance, Freedom, and Necessity in the Notion of the Self-So

APPENDIX B

Comparative Notes on Freedom and Determinism

Notes

Bibliography

Index