When comparing Western thought to the Eastern thought of Taoism, a ready example would be to contrast Newtonian physics to quantum physics. In Newtonian physics the laws governing celestial bodies are simple and understandable. One states that objects in motion stay in motion and objects at rest stay at rest unless an outside force acts on them. In quantum physics, the black and white of Newtonian physics turns grey. Electrons exists in a state of both being and not being and are governed by unpredictable laws that make it impossible for science to exactly pinpoint their location, which the appearances seeming to suggest that they occupy multiple quantum spaces and exist in multiple states. Taoism is like quantum physics as the Taoist understanding of knowledge and reason avoids by nature specificity and concreteness. The Western understandings of knowledge and reason has led to great advances in science and technology. In this way, it is more practical for and conducive to problem solving. However, it has its limits. When it comes to tranquility of the mind, and deeper understandings into meaning and relating to the vast expanse of aspects of the world science has yet to stand, a Taoist view of knowledge and reason has a dynamic way of understanding that is superior to the Western understanding.
In the Western world, things either are or they are not. Someone is happy or they are not. Someone is virtuous or they are not. Things such is iPods, computers and cars are all the result of a western way of systematically thinking. The scientific method can be traced back to Aristotelian science and empiricism. The tradition of knowledge and understanding in Western thought can be traced back to the Greeks. Aristotle advanced ideas of how to organize the world, which in turn advocated ways to organize thought. Those who grow up under this Western understanding of the world, take for granted that this understanding is imposed rather than innate.
Reason and knowledge, govern not just the sciences, but since they govern a person or society’s understanding of the world, they overlap into how a person lives life.
Aristotle noted that everywhere he looked, people were seeking pleasure. He did not see these things as bad in and of themselves, but took issue with their excesses. He saw animals seeking this as their end good, but separated man from animals and thought the humans were destined for greater things than beasts. Our natures, he saw as incomplete, and our goal then was to work to perfect that nature, and through the process of perfection, the end result was happiness (1098a 12).
Our urges must be governed by our rationality. Without that, they are in control of us instead of us in control of them. He writes that “the function of the man is to live a certain kind of life, and this activity implies a rational principle.” The man who is pursuing the “right path” he considers “the good man” (1098a 13). He writes that, the function of a good man is the good and noble performance of these {living a certain kind of life based on rational principle} and if any action is well performed it is performed in accord with the appropriate excellence” (1098a 13).
Virtue is an essential part of attaining happiness, since happiness is following the soul within the bounds of virtue. So what constitutes virtue for Aristotle? He has linked it as a prerequisite of happiness; so an understanding of it is essential in order to both understand what exactly constitutes happiness and also how to attain it. He writes that “He [the good man] is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout life” (1101a 10).
Aristotle then, does not see the culmination of virtue, or the end result of happiness as something subjective, but as an objective reality of complete actualization for those who pursue the good path. The goods for Aristotle include are health, wealth, friends and knowledge.
Aristotle’s influence exists to day in spheres as varied as aeromechanics, biology, history and many other. History, for instance, is seen like a timeline, separated by years. There are clearly delineated separations between things past and things present. History is the retelling of facts of the past. Be it a particular date that a war happened or a timeline of readers, it is useful in our understanding of what exactly happened and when it happened. History, however, has its limitations. The past, being irrevocably gone, is impossible to experience fully.
Taoism does not draw the rigid distinctions in logic and reason that Western thought does. In some ways, the Taoist understanding of knowledge and reason is the antithesis of the western understanding. It is a “liberation” from thee world of the present and the strict rules of convention, including western convention. Toaists have generally a suspicion of orthodox understanding of knowledge and reason. While western thought believes that one day will we gain enough knowledge to understand everything, Taoists believe that the universe or the “Tao” will never be comprehended by the limited human intellect. Their central work, the Tao Te Ching, by Chuang Tzu, advocates a detachment and liberation from this world.
Little is known about the origins of the Tao Te Ching except that it was written in the fifth century B.C. by Lao-tzu of whom an equally sparse amount of information is known. However, information about its origins and author does not necessary for an understanding of its content and what is preserved and what is inevitably lost in the translation from Chinese to English.
Proverb 22 of it states: “If you want to be whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself become empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up.”
In the forward of nearly every English edition of the Tao Te Ching, there are notes from the translator trying to express to his readers the difficulties involved in the process of translating the text. A commonality between many such forwards is the difficulty of assigning pronouns a gender. The English language has a gender bias that forces a writer to assign the pronoun ‘he,’ ‘she,’ or ‘it.’ The Chinese language doesn’t make this distinction. The translator Stephen Mitchell in his translation of the Tao Te Ching “felt it would be untrue to present a male archetype, as other versions havethe teaching of Lao-tzu is by far the most female.” ( Mitchell, Stephen 1988 pg. xi) In Mitchell’s translation, he decided to alternate between ‘he’ and ‘she’ so as not to give a preference to one gender. But this alternation doesn’t solve the innate problem any more than choosing one gender over the other, since choosing a gender adds a connotation to the text not found in the original. There is no English solution to this problem, only ways around it. Following are three different translations proverb 71 of the Tao Te Ching:
- The Master is her own physician. She has healed herself of all knowing. Thus she is truly whole. (Mitchel Stephen, Tae Te ching 1995)
- He who recognizes his limitations is healthy. He who ignores his limitations is sick. The sage recognizes this sickness as a limitation. And so becomes immune. (Mercel, Peter Tao Te Ching, 1992)
- Knowing ignorance is strength. Ignoring knowledge is sickness. If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick. The sage is not sick because the sage is sick of sickness. Therefore the sage is not sick. (Gia Fu Feng , Tao Te Ching 1994)
Though these three translations come from the same text, the differences are striking. The first two attempt to assign gender, while the third tries to leaves out gender entirely, creating an unnecessary repetition of the word sage.
There is no solution to the meaning lost in translated texts, it is necessary to have an understanding of meaning lost. Knowing that in Chinese there is one word that means ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘it,’ allows one not to pay close attention to gender when interpreting the text, but to instead realize that gender exist in the text only as a by product of the Western world view.
When comparing these two different understandings the Western view would elevate itself as superior, citing the product of it’s thought which include the technology the world enjoys today. The Taoist view however would find the very notion of the concept “better” to be laughable and would disagree with the very premise that one world view could be pitted against another.
The Taoist view would acknowledge some of the benefits of Western thought, but might also ask the question of if all of these advances, computers, understanding of history, iPhones have made the world a better place. Have these things make people happier? By separating the world into black and white is the world nostalgic for gray?
Western understandings of reason and knowledge are rigid enough to the point of being oppression. Things must be a certain way. The Taoist view is a softer view. It is not on a fast paced journey to arrive at a certain destination, but instead is enjoying the journey of arrival. This, the Taoist would argue, is the only pathway to mental tranquility and peace. So while it would be difficult to deny that the Western view has a practical element to it, in terms of mental tranquility, happiness, which are for many the goals and purpose of life, it seems the softer approach of acknowledged and accepted uncertainty as advocated by Taosim is better than a Western approach. Although, a Taoist would see no reason to ever use the concepts of “better” or “best” in such a context.
Works Cited
Aristotle. Trans. Ross, W. D.. Nicomachean ethics. Raleigh, N.C.: Alex Catalogue, 2000. Print.
Jesperson, Otto. Growth and Structure of the English Language. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company Inc., 1938 Pgs. 3, 11
Merel, Peter A. Tao De Ching. 2nd ed. 1992. 12 Mar. 2006 <http://www.chinapage.com/gnl.html.>.
Mitchell, Stephen. TAO TE CHING. New York, NY: HapperCollins. 1995
