Is Daoism ‘green'?

Asian Philosophy 4 (2):119-125 (1994)
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Abstract

Contemporary advocates of ‘deep ecology’ often appeal to daoist ideals as an early expression of ‘respect’ for nature. This appeal is inspired, presumably, by daoist attacks on ‘convention’ or ‘artifice’ which, as Zhuang Zi puts it, ‘has been the ruin of primordial nature... the ruin of the world’. But there are problems with this appeal. Daoists are extremely selective in the aspects of nature which they admire, and it is as much the skilled artisan as the person ‘at one with nature’ who is the daoist ideal. Nevertheless, daoist literature does have implications—albeit rather complicated—for proper environmental attitudes.

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David Cooper
Durham University

Citations of this work

Ziran and wuwei in the daodejing : An ethical assessment.Karyn Lai - 2007 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 6 (4):325-337.

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References found in this work

The ecological self.Freya Mathews - 1991 - Savage, Md.: Barnes & Noble.
Martin Heidegger: An Illustrated Study, by Walter Biemel.David Farrell Krell - 1978 - Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 9 (3):199-201.
Taoism.Joseph Wu - 1985 - In Donald H. Bishop & Jeffrey G. Barlow, Chinese thought: an introduction. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass. pp. 54.

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