The Daoist Conception of Truth:
Laozi's Metaphysical Realism vs. Zhuangzi's Internal Realism
(from: http://www.zhongguosixiang.com/thread-19678-1-1.html
)
JeeLoo Liu
[Earlier draft]
Final version: In Comparative Approaches to Chinese
Philosophy, (ed.) Bo Mou, Ashgate
Publishing Ltd, 2003. Pp. 278-93.
In this paper, I shall present a comparative study of two
leading Daoists’ different conceptions of truth in
the context of modern metaphysical debate on realism and antirealism. My basic contention in this paper is that
both Laozi and Zhuangzi
embrace the realist's thesis that the world is largely independent of us and
the way we are; it has its own objective nature. But Laozi and Zhuangzi differ in their opinions on whether our judgments
could reflect, depict or correspond to the way the world is. In my analysis, Laozi’s
view on truth is likened to metaphysical realism, while Zhuangzi’s
view on truth is likened to internal realism.
Hilary Putnam at one time or another championed both forms of
realism. My exposition of the two forms
of realism will be based on Putnam’s interpretation and others’ analysis of
Putnam’s usage.[1]
I will analyze Laozi’s and Zhuangzi’s
views on truth and reality to demonstrate the justification for this
comparative study. I will also compare Laozi’s and Zhuangzi’s views to
see if they can proffer a coherent Daoist conception
of truth and reality.
I.
Metaphysical Realism and Laozi
To begin with, I shall separate metaphysical realism from
scientific realism. In contemporary
discourse, ‘metaphysical realism’ and ‘scientific realism’ are often used
interchangeably or at lest jointly. But
the two views make separate claims that do not have to be endorsed
together. Metaphysical realism (MR)
basically includes the following theses:[2]
[MR1] The
world consists of a mind-independent reality.
This reality is external to our conception and our conceptual
schemes.
[MR2] Truth involves some sort of
correspondence relationship between thought and the way the world is.
[MR3]
There is exactly one true and complete description of the way the world
is (though we may never have a language capable of expressing it or may never
know it.)[3]
Scientific realism (SR), on the other hand, includes the
following theses that emphasize the validity of science:[4]
[SR1]
Science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what
the world is like, and acceptance of a scientific theory involves the belief
that it is true. [5]
[SR2] The
truth of a scientific theory is independent of our beliefs concerning it. Any theory we presently hold we may come to
reject for good reasons.
[SR3]
Nevertheless, successive theories can often be viewed as better
approximation to the truth. There may
eventually be a "finished science" that gives us the "one true
and complete description of the way the world is."
Metaphysical realism can be interpreted as being compatible
with scientific realism if the view is combined with epistemic optimism. If the finished science will give us the
"one true and complete description of the way the world is," then
what we believe to be tables and chairs do not have to be totally different
from the conception that our present science gives us. Science is making steady progression towards
getting to the real truth. Under this
interpretation, metaphysical realism in combination with scientific realism can
be used to support commonsense realism.[6] But metaphysical realism can also be
interpreted as being incompatible with scientific realism and commonsense
realism. If the mind-independent reality
is what Kant calls the 'thing-in-itself,' the 'noumenal
world,' then it is beyond any human conception and human theorization. There is not only no guarantee, but also no
way, that we can ever know it. Under
this second interpretation, metaphysical realism actually undermines scientific
realism in that science is not going to give us any story that is more
"true" than other nonscientific accounts of the world. Putnam thinks that this latter kind of metaphysical
realism cannot be coherent. But I shall
argue that Laozi's view on truth is similar to this
form of metaphysical realism. Laozi would not accept scientific realism even if he were
to live in a world of modern science. To
him, science, as part of human's projection of the world, is bound to fall
short of capturing the way the world is.
Laozi says ,
"The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; the name that can
be named is not the constant name. The
nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth; the named was the mother of the
myriad creatures." (I, p. 5) I
think the "nameless" here refers to the thing-in-itself reality, and
the "named" here refers to the use of language. Myriad objects come from the introduction of
human languages and human concepts, but this does not mean that the world
itself is dependent on human conception.
In Laozi's metaphysics, there is clearly a
reality beyond the descriptions of human languages. Since our languages and our concepts come
after the presence of the thing-in-itself reality, Laozi
says that this reality cannot be "spoken of" and is
"nameless." Laozi says, "The way is forever nameless…. Only when it is cut are there names. As soon as there are names, one ought to know
that it is time to stop." (XXXII, p. 37)
In this passage, he seems to be presenting the impossibility of using
our linguistic conventions and our conceptual schemes to depict this
mind-independent reality. Nevertheless,
when pressed, Laozi does end up giving it a name: 'the
Way.'[7] Furthermore,
Laozi does not really shy away from using our
language and our concepts to depict the Way.
As a matter of fact, we can say that half of Laozi's
Daodejing is devoted to describing the Way.
In Laozi's depictions, we can see
many layers of meaning assigned to the Way.
For example, Laozi first describes the Way as
being the origin of the universe: "The way is empty, yet use will not
drain it. Deep, it is like the ancestor
of the myriad creatures." (IV, p. 8)
"[The way] is empty without being exhausted: The more it works the
more comes out. Much speech leads
inevitably to silence. Better to hold
fast to the void." (V, p. 9)
"The gateway of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven
and earth." (VI, p. 10)
Secondly, Laozi also describes the
Way as the creator of the universe: "Thus the way gives [the myriad
creatures] life and rears them; brings them up to fruition and maturity; feeds
them and shelters them." (LI, p. 58)
"The way begets one; one begets two; two begets three; three begets
the myriad creatures." (XLII, p. 49)
"The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something,
and Something from Nothing." (XL, p. 47)
"It is the way alone that excels in bestowing and in
accomplishing." (XLI, p. 48) In these passages the Way seems to take up a
more active role in the production of the world.
Thirdly, Laozi sometimes talks
about the Way as the substance or the essence of the universe: "As a thing the way is shadowy,
indistinct. Indistinct and shadowy, yet
within it is a substance. Dim and dark,
yet within it is an essence." (XXI, p. 26)
"The way is broad, reaching left as well as right. The myriad creatures depend on it for life
yet it claims no authority."
(XXXIV, p. 39) Under this
interpretation, the Way is not an "author" of the creation; it is
merely the foundation on which myriad objects get generated.
These different interpretations render the relationship
between the Way and our commonsensical world confusing. What is Laozi's
ontology? First of all, he seems to
believe that there was a beginning of the universe. Laozi says,
"The world had a beginning, and this beginning could be the mother of the
world." (LII, p. 59) Since
elsewhere Laozi also discusses the generation of
being from nothingness, we can speculate that in his view, the commonsensical
world, the world in which we reside, has not always existed. At the beginning there was Nothing, which
generated Something.[8] This "Something" is what Laozi calls 'the Way.'
This Something exists prior to the introduction
of human conception and human languages.
It is therefore nameless. Once
our language introduces names to differentiate objects, the myriad creatures
are "created." In this
analysis, the relation between the Something that is
"dim and indistinct" and the myriad creatures that are all
"named", is simply that between the world without discrimination and
the world with discrimination. Or we can
say it is a relation between the pre-language world and the post-language
world. If there is such a pre-language
world, which Laozi calls in the style of "the
Way," then this world is not constructed out of our conceptual
schemes. Laozi
says, "Man models himself on earth, earth on heaven, heaven on the way,
and the way on that which is naturally so." (XXV, p. 30) In other words, Laozi
does not entertain the possibility that it is we who created or constructed the
Way. The Way is the way things
"naturally are." We can only
copy from it through our observation of the operations of heaven and earth. The way the world naturally is exists prior
to our own existence and is the source of our conception. Even if there were no humans, no languages,
no concepts, there would still be the way the world naturally is. Thus Laozi seems to
be advocating metaphysical realists' belief that "[t]he world is the way
it is, independent of our being able to talk about it or think about
it."[9] It
is in this respect that Laozi's Way is likened to
"the mind-independent thing-in-itself" posited by metaphysical realists. It is also in this respect that Laozi's theory is said to incorporate [MR1].
The distinguishing feature of metaphysical realism is not so
much its interpretation of the nature of reality (as a mind-independent
thing-in-itself), as its interpretation of the nature of truth (as a one-to-one
correspondence relationship). This is
the thesis [MR2]. As we shall see later,
Zhuangzi accepts metaphysical realists' notion of
reality but rejects their notion of truth.
Laozi, on the other hand, assumes this
one-to-one relationship between human conception/conduct and the
world-in-itself. I think Laozi would not reject [MR2], because he does think that
when our thought corresponds to the Way, then our thought is considered
true. However, his notions of truth and
correspondence are different from those of metaphysical realists. Metaphysical realists commonly employ a
propositional or sentential treatment of knowledge, and a statement is true if
and only if it corresponds to states of affairs in the world. But for Laozi, truth
is not propositional, and thus the correspondence he seeks is not a relation
between our statements and the Way.[10] It is rather a relation between our thought
or our conduct and the Way. We can give
close-to-being-true descriptions of the Way if our descriptions really match
the way the world is; we can have objectively good conduct if our behavior
meets the standard of the Way. As we
said earlier, because this ultimate reality exists prior to the use of
language, our descriptions and our theories are bound to be inadequate. But Laozi seems to
think that his descriptions (such as 'female,' 'empty,' 'inactive,' 'constant,'
'vast,' 'dim and dark,' 'silent and void,' etc.) can be viewed as giving an
approximation to the way the world actually is.
This approximation of truth is how Laozi
views his own theory of the Way. [MR3]
states that there is exactly one true and complete description of the way the
world is (though we may never have a language capable of expressing it or may
never know it). To Laozi,
there is only one true description of the way the world is. All the descriptions Laozi
gives to the Way, however inadequate they may be in terms of representing the
Way, are nonetheless regarded as the only true description of the Way. He says, "My words are very easy to
understand and very easy to put into practice, yet on one in the world can
understand them or put them into practice.
[My] words have an ancestor and [my] affairs have a sovereign. It is because people are ignorant that they
fail to understand me. Those who
understand me are few; those who imitate me are honored." (LXX, p.
77) From this remark we see clearly that
Laozi does not think that his theory is merely
relative to his own conceptual scheme, or that other theories may be equally
true. In this respect, Laozi's whole Daodejing can be
seen as the manifestation of his belief in the thesis [MR3].
Metaphysical realism is typically an ontological theory, or,
in contemporary treatment, a semantic and epistemological theory. But for Laozi, it
is also an ethical theory. In the
context of ethics, correspondence is a relation between our conduct and the
Way. This correspondence relation comes
in a prescriptive form: one ought to act in accordance with the Way. It demands a one-directional match: from the
sage to the Way. Laozi
says, "In his every movement a man of great virtue follows the way and the
way only." (XXI, p. 26) "A man
of the way conforms to the way…. He who conforms to the way is gladly accepted
by the way." (XXIII, p. 28) "A
creature in its prime doing harm to the old is known as going against the
Way. That which goes against the way
will come to an early end." (XXX, p. 35; also, LV, p. 62) From these remarks, we see that Laozi embraces a kind of ethical naturalism, the view that
an act is good if and only if it corresponds with what naturally is (the
Way). Morality consists in imitating the
Way, which transcends human conception of the good. Since there is only one good way, ethics is
not relative to different opinions or cultures.
Laozi would definitely reject ethical
relativism, which is often associated with antirealism.
Putnam argues that metaphysical realism is an untenable
theory because it is incoherent.
"The reason is that it depends on the assumption that we can
conceive of a complete representation of the world which is radically detached
from all of our beliefs. In order to
conceive of such a representation, our conception of the entities to which our
words refer would have to be available independently of all of our beliefs
about those entities. But we have
already seen that our conception of the entities to which our words refer is
not available independently of all of our beliefs about them."[11] We can see similar
problems in Laozi's philosophy: If the Way exists
prior to language and cannot be spoken of, then how can Laozi
even attempt to capture it in words? If
the Way exists independently of human mind, then how can Laozi
himself comprehend it? If the Way is dim
and vague, then why can Laozi alone see it? It is probably because of these problems in Laozi's philosophy that Zhuangzi
chose to move towards a more relativistic and more skeptical attitude.
II.
Internal Realism and Zhuangzi
Zhuangzi’s view on truth and
reality has been widely branded as ‘relativism,’ ‘skepticism’ or even ‘radical
skepticism.’[12] Jung H. Lee in his
‘Disputers of the Tao: Putnam and Chuang-Tzu on
Meaning, Truth, and Reality’ is to my knowledge the first to contrast Zhuangzi to Putnam’s internal realism, but he ends up
concluding that in Zhuangzi there is a “mystical mode
of epistemology.’[13]
In this section I shall argue that Zhuangzi
advocates neither radical skepticism nor mysticism. He is actually a realist.[14] His realism is closer to what Putnam calls
'internal realism' than other forms of realism.
I shall not deny that Zhuangzi is also a
skeptic with respect to human knowledge, and a relativist with respect to human
conception. But my main contention is
that 'internal realism' is a more appropriate description for Zhuangzi's view on reality and truth. Internal realism to some critic is a form of
antirealism. I shall thus begin my
analysis with a comparison between antirealism and internal realism.
Zhuangzi’s view on truth can be
described as ‘antirealism’ if we employ Michael Dummett’s
criterion of antirealism. Dummett says that any antirealist would reject the
principle of bivalence:[15]
[The Principle of Bivalence]: Every statement is determinately
either true or false.
Zhuangzi would clearly reject this
principle. He argues that the content of
a judgment is relative to the speaker's conceptual scheme, and the claim of
truth is relative to the speaker's perspective.
Zhuangzi says:
Everything has its “that,” everything has its “this.” From the point of view of “that” you cannot
see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, “that” comes out of “this” and
‘this” depends on “that” ¾ which is to say that “this” and “that”
give birth to each other. But where
there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be
birth. Where there is acceptability
there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be
acceptability. Where there is
recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is
recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. (Chapter 2, p. 35)
In this passage Zhuangzi seems to
remark that every judgment is relative to a certain perspective (a point of
view). What is called ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
is relative to one’s viewpoint. There is
hence no absolute right or wrong. No statement
can possibly be made outside all conceptual schemes or from the point of view
of nowhere. To judge whether a statement
is true or false, therefore, we need to first evaluate in what conceptual
scheme this statement is embedded. A
statement true to human conception is not necessarily true to another
creature's conception. A statement true
from one individual's perspective is bound to be false from her opponent's
perspective. Statements are not
determinately true or false independently of our conception; they simply do not
have any intrinsic truth-value in and of themselves. The view that Zhuangzi
advocates in this argument does seem to be the rejection of the principle of
bivalence.
But to say that Zhuangzi rejects
the principle of bivalence, is not to say that he denies the existence of the
world-in-itself, which he also calls 'the Way.'[16] So if the debate between realism and
antirealism is construed as a local debate on the existence of the Way, then Zhuangzi is definitely a realist. For Zhuangzi, the
Way is as real as Laozi conceives it to be, but any
human description (including his own) is bound to fail to represent it. Zhuangzi says,
"As to what is beyond the Six Realms, the sage admits it exists but does
not theorize." (Chapter 2, p. 39)
Therefore, Zhuangzi does not indulge in the
effort of explicating the Way. No word
could possibly do the job of giving us the truth of the Way — even his own
description would be relative to his conceptual scheme. Therefore, Zhuangzi
resorts to using metaphors, fables, parodies, stories, etc. to give us a mental
picture of what the goal ought to be. We
could probably say that Zhuangzi is skeptical of our
linguistic ability to express the truth of reality, but he is not skeptical of
the existence of this reality itself.
This combination of what we may call 'semantic antirealism' and
'ontological realism' is close to what Putnam describes as 'internal
realism.'[17]
Putnam characterizes internal realism (IR) in the following
way:[18]
[IR1]
Internal realism is the view that a sign that is employed in a
particular way by a particular community of users can correspond to particular
objects within the conceptual scheme of those users.
[IR2]
Signs do not intrinsically correspond to objects, independently of how
those signs are employed and by whom.
[IR3]
Objects do not exist independently of conceptual schemes. We cut up the world into objects when we
introduce one or another scheme of description.
According to Putnam, internal realism is compatible with
conceptual relativism, and I think Zhuangzi does
defend some form of conceptual relativism.
What Putnam means by 'conceptual relativity' is the renunciation of the
fact/value dichotomy. Putnam says,
"The doctrine of conceptual relativity, in brief, is that while there is
an aspect of conventionality and an aspect of fact in everything we say that is
true, we fall into hopeless philosophical error if we commit a 'fallacy of
division' and conclude that there must be a part of the truth that is the
'conventional part' and a part that is the 'factual part'." [19] Zhuangzi
also argues that all our thought is internal to our conceptual scheme, and
therefore we can never say what fact is other than voicing our value
judgments. In a passage where Zhuangzi presents Wang Ni’s explanation of the
impossibility of knowledge, Zhuangzi puts forward an
argument for the relativity of judgments:
If a man sleeps in a damp place, his back aches and he ends
up half paralyzed, but is this true of a loach?
If he lives in a tree, he is terrified and shakes with fright, but is
this true of a monkey? Of these three
creatures, then, which one knows the proper place to live? Men eat the flesh of grass-fed and grain-fed
animals, deer eat grass, centipedes find snakes tasty, and hawks and falcons
relish mice. Of these four, which knows
how food ought to taste? (Chapter 2, p.
41)
We can formulate Zhuangzi’s
argument in this way:
1. Our judgments
depend on our natural/physical compositions.
For example, men judge a dry place a better place to live whereas
loaches would judge a damp place a better place to live; men find animals tasty
whereas deer would find grass tasty.
2. Different
compositions generate different perspectives.
3. Therefore, all
judgments are made in accordance with a particular perspective.
4. Therefore,
there cannot be universal judgments among agents with different compositions.
As we can see, this argument can be seen as an argument for
conceptual relativism. Different species
have different physical/biological make-ups and their judgments are bound to be
determined, or affected, by their make-ups.
Because of remarks like the above, Zhuangzi is
sometimes interpreted as holding a view called 'radical relativism' or ‘perspectivism.’[20] But as I shall point out later, Zhuangzi's view, like Putnam's internal realism, is not to
be identified with either radical relativism or perspectivism. Perspectivism is
the view that “all knowledge is knowledge from or within a particular
perspective.”[21] It
can also be characterized as a form of radical relativism, which argues that
truth is simply what each person recognizes as true and there is no value
distinction between different claims of truth.
All perspectives are simply equally good. In other words, perspectivism
is making the following claim:
[P1] The truth of
our judgments is relative to our perspectives. Incompatible statements can both be taken as
true as long as they are true relative to the speaker's perspective.
But Zhuangzi merely points out
that all our judgments are made in accordance with our make-up, our culture or
our perspective. He does not say that
all our judgments are made true by our culture or our perspective. Zhuangzi says:
Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but
illuminates all in the light of Heaven.
He too recognizes a “this,” but a “this” has both a right and wrong in
it. So, in fact, does he still have a
“this” and “that”? Or does he in fact no
longer have a “this” and “that”? A state
in which “this” and “that” no longer find their opposites is called the hinge
of the Way. (Chapter 2, p. 35)
The notion of truth that Zhuangzi
advocates relies on the denial of discriminations (of right and wrong, of good
and bad, of this and that, etc.). But he
is not denying the separation of truth and falsehood. To him, there is clear falsehood: to present
one’s perspective as the only correct one.
Zhuangzi says, "But to fail to abide by
this mind and still insist upon your rights and wrongs,…. This is to claim that what doesn't exist
exists." (Chapter 2, p. 34) To move to the perspectivist
level ¾ to view truth as simply a determinant of one’s perspective
or that all truths are equal ¾ is no better.[22] Zhuangzi says,
"[Waiting] for one shifting voice [to pass judgment on] another is the
same as waiting for none of them…. Right is not right; so is not so. If right were really right, it would differ
so clearly from not right and that there would be no need for argument. If so were really so, it would differ so
clearly from not so that there would be no need for argument." (Chapter 2,
p. 44) The paradox he is posing here is
that the truly right would have no opposite, and the ultimate "Truth"
would actually be the elimination of the distinction between truth and
falsehood. What Zhuangzi
proposes is the notion of truth that is the synthesis of all perspectives:
[P2] True
knowledge is the knowledge that denies perspectival
knowledge. Truth is not relative to
perspectives; rather, truth transcends all perspectives.
In contrast to the perspectivism
thesis [P1], I think Zhuangzi’s claims are the
following instead:
[P3] Our judgments
are relative to our perspectives.
[P4] Our judgments
are relative to our perspective, but Truth is not relative to perspectives. Therefore, none of our judgments is true.
In other words, instead of granting all perspectives as
equally true, Zhangzi is arguing that all
perspectives are necessarily false. What he expresses is actually the opposite
of perspectivism.
If we separate the two levels of 'truth' in Zhuangzi's usage, we may see his view in a better light:
[Truth1]: It
is the notion of truth employed by ordinary people; it is relative to
perspectives.
[Truth2]: It
is the notion of truth that is beyond human conception of truth and falsehood;
it transcends all human perspectives and it is a clear representation of the
Way.
Since Zhuangzi holds the view that
there is an ultimate notion of Truth2, which is not relative to perspectives,
and that this Truth2 is superior to Truth1, he cannot be viewed as embracing perspectivism. This
Truth2 is not what we could deem as true, because once we call it 'true,' it is
brought back to the cycle of truth/falsehood.
It is also not an absolute Truth from a God's eye view, or as Laozi puts it, from the point of view of the Way. What Zhuangzi
introduces here is actually the absence of all discriminations and the
cessation of all fact/value judgments.
Truth2 is not a mapping between our conception and the way the world is,
because there is no such mapping possible.
Things for us or from our point of view are necessarily internal to our
conceptual schemes, and different conceptual schemes cannot compete for being
the best "match" for the world-in-itself.
For Zhuangzi, as for Putnam's
internal realists, the Truth2 that transcends all perspectives is
"inaccessible to us and inconceivable by us."[23] Since Zhuangzi
holds the view that such a notion of Truth2 is unavailable to us, he would
often make the comment: "How can I really know?" If we say that knowledge is true justified
belief, then even when we think our beliefs are justified (relative to our
perspective), we can never obtain knowledge.
In this respect Zhuangzi can also be called a
skeptic concerning human knowledge.[24]
Zhuangzi has several arguments for
the impossibility of the certainty of our knowledge:
[A] The Argument from Dream
He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes;
he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming he does not know it is a
dream, and in his dream he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a
dream. And someday there will be a great
awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. (Chapter 2, p. 43)
We can formulate his argument as follows:
1. Our dreams seem
to us as real as when we are awake.
2. When we are
dreaming, we never know that it was just a dream.
3. Therefore, when
we think we are awake, we could also be dreaming.
4. Therefore, we
can never be sure of our judgment that we are awake.
[B] The Argument from the Impossibility of Judgment of Truth
Suppose you and I had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of my beating
you, then are you necessarily right and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of your beating
me, then am I necessarily right and are you necessarily wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong?… Whom shall we get to decide what is right? Shall we get someone who agrees with you to
decide? But if he already agrees with
you, how can he decide fairly? Shall we
get someone who agrees with me? But if
he already agrees with me, how can he decide?
Shall we get someone who disagrees with both of us? But if he already disagrees with both of us,
then how can he decide? Shall we get someone who agrees with both of us? But if he already agrees with both of us, how
can he decide? Obviously, then, neither
you nor I nor anyone else can know the answer.
(Chapter 2, pp. 43-44)
We can reorganize Zhuangzi's
remark into a reductio ad absurdum argument:
1. We are capable
of judging a statement to be true.
2. But different
judgments are necessarily relative to different perspectives, and Truth
transcends all perspectives.
3. Therefore, no
two people with different perspectives can ever give the judgment of truth.
4. If a third
party sides with A, then she takes up A's perspective;
if she sides with B, then she takes
up B's perspective;
if she sides with neither A nor B,
then she has her own perspective;
if she sides with both A and B,
then she takes up the perspective of a compromise.
5. Therefore, no
third party can ever give the judgment of truth either.
6. Therefore, we
are not capable of judging a statement to be true.
In [A] Zhuangzi presents a sort of
Cartesian argument for the impossibility of knowing that we are not presently
dreaming. In [B] Zhuangzi
expresses the impossibility of obtaining truth on the basis of rational
discourse and mutual agreement. They
both support the conclusion that we can never know for sure. All our knowledge is relative to our understanding
and our perspective. The true knowledge
that is beyond perspectives is impossible for us. Whatever we do know and whatever we claim to
be true, is necessarily relative to our conceptual
schemes. I think this skepticism about
knowledge is what motivates Zhuangzi to move from
metaphysical realism towards internal realism.
Even if one embraces the relativistic character of truth,
one does not necessarily embrace the relativistic character of reality. One can argue that there is no such thing as
"a view without a viewer," without ascertaining that there cannot be
"a world without a viewer." Zhuangzi certainly does not argue that reality is relative
to perspectives or conceptual schemes, that there is no fact of the matter with
regard to the reality in itself. As we
explained earlier, Zhuangzi also acknowledges the
existence of a mind-independent reality 'Dao (the Way).' The Way embraces everything and transcends
the empirical world. Zhuangzi
says, "[W]hether I succeed in discovering his
identity or not, it neither adds to nor distracts from his Truth."
(Chapter 2, p. 33) The closest Zhuangzi gets to describing the
Way is the following seemingly paradoxical remark: "The Way has its
reality and its signs but is without action or form. You can hand it down but you cannot receive
it; you can get it but you cannot see it.
Before Heaven and earth existed it was there, firm from ancient
times. It gave spirituality to the spirits
and to God; it gave birth to Heaven and to earth. It exists beyond the highest point, and yet
you cannot call it lofty; it exists beneath the limit of the six directions,
and yet you cannot call it deep. It was
born before heaven and earth, and yet you cannot say it has been there for long;
it is earlier than the ancient times, and yet you cannot call it
old." (Chapter 6, p. 77) Because names and assertive statements are
limited, Zhuangzi could only give his description of
the Way in a metaphorical and paradoxical way.
In Zhuangzi's depiction, the Way is very much
like the mind-independent reality that metaphysical realists postulate. But whereas Laozi's
focuses on explicating this mind-independent reality, Zhuangzi
focuses on explicating the impossibility of our knowledge and our description
of this mind-independent reality.
One may argue that if Zhuangzi
believes in the existence of a mind-independent reality, then he is really not
an internal realist. However, from
Putnam's description of Kant's internal realism, we can see that accepting the
existence of a mind-independent reality is at least not incompatible with
upholding internal realism. Putnam says,
"[Kant] does not doubt that there is some mind-independent realty…. But we
can form no real conception of these noumenal things;
even the notion of a noumenal world is a kind of
limit of thought rather than a clear concept."[25] I think this interpretation can be
equally applied to Zhuangzi's view.
Both Laozi and Zhuangzi
are realists with regard to the Way.
What makes Zhuangzi's view internal realism,
and not metaphysical realism, is his relativistic attitude towards the content
of our conception and our judgments.
Because what we think is necessarily determined by our own conceptual
scheme, we cannot use language to express any fact about the way the world is. Putnam explains his rejection of the
metaphysical realist's correspondence theory of truth in this way: "What I
am saying, then, is that elements of what we call 'language' or 'mind'
penetrate so deeply into what we call 'reality' that the very project of
representing ourselves as being 'mappers' of
something 'language-independent' is fatally compromised from the very
start." (his italics)[26] I think Zhuangzi
would reject any attempt to give a truthful depiction of the way the world is
for the very same reason. Zhuangzi is a realist with regard to the way the world is,
but he is also a relativist with regard to the way we conceive the world. His arguments show that we can never have a
conception of the way the world is independently of our perspective, but he
does not go as far as radical relativists in upholding that all perspectives
are equally right. We can probably say
that Zhuangzi's internal realism serves as the middle
path between metaphysical realism and radical relativism.
III. Laozi and Zhuangzi in Comparison
The debate between realism and antirealism is often seen as
a local disagreement in the assumed existence of a particular kind of
thing. Both Laozi
and Zhuangzi acknowledge the existence of the Way,
the reality that is beyond human conception and even human understanding. With regard to this particular thing then,
both Laozi and Zhuangzi are
"realists." But what makes the
former a metaphysical realist and the latter an internal realist? In Mark Heller's analysis, there are two
broad senses of 'realism.' He calls the
first sense the 'ontological sense of realism,' which is the acknowledgement of
the existence of particular entities or kinds of entities. The second kind of realism, according to
Heller, is the 'epistemological sense of realism,' which claims that there is
no fact of the matter as to whether a particular object or kind exists. Heller thinks that internal realism is
realism in the epistemological sense.[27] Both Laozi and Zhuangzi would be realists under the ontological sense of
the term, but only Zhuangzi would be a realist under
the epistemological sense of the term. I
think the dispute on whether we can know about the ultimate reality, is what
distinguishes Laozi's and Zhuangzi's
realism.
Laozi does not share the same
skepticism that Zhuangzi adopts
in his approach to this mind-independent reality. Laozi says,
"From the present back to antiquity, its name never deserted it. It serves as a means for inspecting the
fathers of the multitude. How do I know
that the fathers of the multitude are like that? By means of this."
(italics mine) (XXI, p. 26) Even though it is not exactly clear what Laozi means by "this" in the quote, it is at
least obvious that he does not deny that he can know the father of the
multitude, or we may say, the Way.
Furthermore, Laozi does not think
that different opinions simply express different points of view, and that our
judgments are necessarily confined to our perspectives. To Laozi, there can
be one true perspective: the perspective of the Way. He says, "From the point of view of the
way these are excessive food and useless excrescences. As there are Things that detest them, he who
has the Way does not abide in them." (XXIV, p. 29) Laozi also says,
"Those who are good I treat as good.
Those who are not good I also treat as good. In so doing I gain in goodness." (XLIX,
p. 56) This remark is different from Zhuangzi's remark that good and bad are relative to one's
judgment, in that for Laozi, there are people who are good. Laozi's treating
good people and bad people equally does not mean that he is denying the true
distinction between good and bad.
Finally, Laozi says, "It is the way of
heaven to show no favoritism. It is
forever on the side of the good men."
(LXXIX, p. 86) Here we clearly
see his recognition of the true good. Laozi is certainly not an ethical relativist by any
means.
Zhuangzi, on the other hand,
accepts a modest form of relativism. He
is not a radical relativist who holds the view that all opinions are equally
right. He is also not a radical skeptic
who would even deny the validity of his own position. But he is nonetheless a modest conceptual
relativist concerning our thoughts and beliefs, and a skeptic concerning our
ability to know the ultimate Truth. As
we demonstrated earlier, Zhuangzi does hold the view
that there is a mind-independent reality, and as Laozi
does, he calls this reality "nameless.'
But Zhuangzi takes up from Laozi's
remark and emphasize the fact that human language is in an eternal predicament:
it distorts the Way. "If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way."
(Chapter 2, p. 40) "Because right and wrong appeared, the Way was
injured." (Chapter 2, p. 37) Since Laozi also has the premise that the Way cannot be spoken of
and cannot be named, Laozi himself should have come
to the same conclusion that it is futile to describe the Way, and that no one
can ever know its truth.
In conclusion, I think Laozi and Zhuangzi do not hold incompatible view on the nature of reality,
but they have different evaluation of human's capacity to understand or to
depict this reality. What is the Daoist conception of Truth?
Ultimately it is still a form of correspondence relationship. But the correspondence that constitutes Truth
is not a relation between our statements and the commonsensical world; it is
rather a relation between our thought and the world that exists independently
of us and is forever closed to our conception.
Laozi's whole project is to depict this
reality to the best approximation he can accomplish, whereas Zhuangzi's endeavor is to prove how the whole project of
depiction is ultimately impossible. For Laozi, the Way is indeed unspeakable, but he nonetheless
tries to speak about it. Zhuangzi sees that this attempt makes Laozi's
metaphysical realism incoherent. If the
Way is pre-linguistic and contra-linguistic, then we can never speak about it
or think about it. If all our thoughts
are relative to our conceptual scheme and our cultural/biological constitution,
then we can never know what the way the world is independently of our
conception could be like. I think Zhuangzi's internal realism actually pushes Laozi's original thesis about reality a step further, and
thereby accomplishes a more coherent Daoist conception
of truth.
Notes
References
1. Anderson, David
L. (1992), 'What Is Realistic about Putnam's Internal Realism?,'
Philosophical Topics 20, no. 1, pp. 49-83.
2. Brown, Curtis
(1988), 'Internal Realism: Transcendental Idealism?,'
3. Cortens, Andrew Joseph (2000), Global Anti-Realism: A Metaphilosophical Inquiry,
4. Dummett, Michael (1982), 'Realism,' Synthese
52, pp. 55-112.
5. Ebbs,
6. Fales, Evan (1988), 'How to Be a Metaphysical Realist,'
7. Graham, A. C.
(1983), 'Taoist Spontaneity and the Dichotomy of "Is" and
"Ought," in [Mair 1983], pp. 3-23.
8.
9.
10.
11. Hsu, Sung-peng (1976), 'Lao Tzu's Conception of Ultimate Reality: A
Comparative Study,' International Philosophical Quarterly 16, pp. 197-218.
12. Heller, Mark
(1988), 'Putnam, Reference and Realism,' '
13. Ivanhoe, Philip
J. (1996), 'Was Zhuangzi a Relativist?,' in [Kjellberg & Ivanhoe
1996], pp. 196-214.
14. Kjellberg, Paul & Ivanhoe, Philip J. (eds.) (1996),
Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi,
15. Laozi, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching,
(trans.) D. C. Lau, Penguin Books, 1963.
16. Lee, Jung H.
(1998) ‘Disputers of the Tao: Putnam and Chuang-Tzu
on Meaning, Truth, and Reality,’ Journal of Chinese Philosophy 25: 4, pp.
447-470.
17. LePore, Ernest and Loewer, Barry
(1988), 'A Putnam's Progress,'
18. Mair, Victor H. (ed.) (1983), Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, Asian Studies at Hawaii, Hawaii: University of
Hawaii Press.
19. Putnam, Hilary
(1990), Realism with a Human Face,
20. Putnam, Hilary
(1987), The Many Faces of Realism,
21. Putnam, Hilary
(1981), Reason, Truth and History,
22. Putnam, Hilary
(1978), Meaning and the Moral Sciences,
23. Raphals, Lisa (1996), 'Skeptical Strategies in the Zhuangzi and Theaetetus,' in [Kjellberg & Ivanhoe 1996], pp. 26-49.
24. Schwitzgebel, Eric (1996), 'Zhuangzi's
Attitude Toward Language and His Skepticism,' in [Kjellberg & Ivanhoe 1996], pp. 68-96.
25. Shen, Vincent (1996), 'Confucianism and Taoism in Response
to Constructive Realism,' Journal of Chinese Philosophy 23, pp. 59-78.
26. Sosa, Ernest
(1993), 'Putnam's Pragmatic Realism,' Journal of Philosophy 92, no. 12, pp.
605-626.
27. Wright, Crispin
(1988), 'Realism, Antirealism, Irrealism,
Quasi-Realism,' '
28. Yearley, Lee (1983), 'The Perfected Person in the Radical Chuang-tzu,' in [Mair 1983], pp.
125-139.
29. Zhuangzi, Chuang Tzu: Basic
Writings, (trans.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] For commentaries on Putnam's realism see for example
Anderson, David L. (1992), 'What Is Realistic about Putnam's Internal Realism?'
Philosophical Topics 20, no. 1, pp. 49-83; Ebbs, Gary (1992), 'Realism and
Rational Inquiry,' Philosophical Topics 20, no. 1, pp. 1-33; Heller, Mark
(1988), 'Putnam, Reference and Realism,' ' Midwest Studies in Philosophy XII,
pp. 113-128; LePore, Ernest and Loewer,
Barry (1988), 'A Putnam's Progress,' Midwest Studies in Philosophy XII, pp.
459-473; Sosa, Ernest (1993), 'Putnam's Pragmatic Realism,' Journal of
Philosophy 92, no. 12, pp. 605-626; and Wright, Crispin (1988), 'Realism,
Antirealism, Irrealism, Quasi-Realism,' ' Midwest
Studies in Philosophy XII, pp. 25-50.
[2] The summary of theses comes mostly from Putnam's own
remark (Putnam, Hilary (1981), Reason, Truth and History, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, p. 49), and from LePore and Loewer's formulation of Putnam's characterization of
metaphysical realism (LePore & Loewer (1988), p. 460).
But I deliberately changed some wordings. What Putnam calls "the fixed totality of
mind-independent objects," I change to "mind-independent reality." What Putnam calls "words or
thought-signs," I change to "thought." I think the rewording does not alter the
spirit of metaphysical realism, but it allows us to see Laozi's
view more in the light of metaphysical realism.
Laozi thinks that reality exists independently
of our conception, but distinctions of objects come from the conventions of
language/signs. So he would not call
this ultimate reality "the totality of objects," though he does
embrace its mind-independence.
[3] The parenthesis is added by Ernest LePore
and Barry Loewer.
See LePore & Loewer
(1988), p. 460.
[4] LePore & Loewer (1988), p. 460.
[5] This is Bas van Frassen's
formulation quoted by LePore and Loewer. (LePore
and Loewer (1988), p. 460.)
[6] Putnam sometimes calls metaphysical realism 'Realism
(with a capital "R")' and commonsense realism 'realism (with a small
"r").'
[7] Laozi says, "There is a
thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth, silent and void. It stands alone and does not change, goes
round and does not weary. It is capable
of being the mother of the world. I know
not its name, so I style it 'the Way.' (Laozi, Lao
Tzu: Tao Te Ching, (trans.) D. C. Lau, Penguin Books,
1963, XXV, p. 30)
[8] Of course there is the question of how Something can come from Nothing. Laozi does not give
us any answer to this question.
[9] This is Mark Heller's description of metaphysical
realism, which he calls 'externalism' in his article 'Putnam, Reference, and
Realism.' (Heller, Mark (1988), p. 116)
[10] Chad Hansen in his analysis of Laozi's
view on knowledge points out that "where Western or Indian analyses of
knowledge focus on propositional knowledge (knowing-that), Chinese, especially
Taoist, critical theory focuses on practical knowledge cum skill (knowing-to or
knowing-how-to.)." (Hansen, Chad
(1981), 'Linguistic Skepticism in the Lao Tzu,' Philosophy East and West 31,
no. 3, p. 322) In the same way, I argue
that Laozi's notion of truth is also not to be viewed
as expressing a relation between some proposition/sentence and some states of
affairs in the world.
[11] This quote is from Gary Ebbs' interpretation of
Putnam's argument. See Ebbs,
[12] For example, Chad Hansen argues that Zhuangzi defends radical skepticism and relativism; Lee Yearley argues that we can see a radical Zhuangzi in his skepticism; A. C. Graham calls the view
"skepticism and relativism as extreme as Chuang-tzu's,"
and Eric Schwitzgebel thinks that Zhuangzi
argues for radical skepticism, but does not sincerely subscribe to it. See essays in Kjellberg,
Paul & Ivanhoe, Philip J. (eds.) (1996), Essays on Skepticism, Relativism,
and Ethics in the Zhuangzi, Albany: State University
of New York Press, and in Mair, Victor H. (ed.)
(1983), Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu, Asian
Studies at Hawaii, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press.
[13] Lee, Jung H (1998), ‘Disputers of the Tao: Putnam and Chuang-Tzu on Meaning, Truth, and Reality,’ Journal of
Chinese Philosophy 25: 4, pp. 447-470, p. 463.
[14] For the purpose of preserving coherence in authorship,
I shall use only the Inner Chapters from the Zhuangzi.
[15] Dummett has another less
stringent principle which he calls 'the principle of valence,' according to
which every unambiguous statement must be determinately either true or false. (Dummett, Michael (1982), 'Realism,' Synthese 52, pp. 55-112.) Zhuangzi would
reject both principles, since for him the problem of indeterminancy
does not come from ambiguity. All
statements are intrinsically without a determinate truth value because they are
relative to conceptual schemes.
[16] Zhuangzi's position on
reality may be another example to show the inadequacy of Dummett's
distinction between realism and antirealism.
Dummett treats the debate as a semantic issue,
as a debate on the truth conditions of a certain class of statements. But if viewed as a semantic issue, then even Laozi's view could be called 'antirealism.' As Andrew Cortens
points out, Dummett's distinction seems to be too
narrow to capture a lot of the actual disagreements between realists and
antirealists. (Cortens, Andrew Joseph (2000), Global
Anti-Realism: A Metaphilosophical Inquiry, Boulder,
Colorado: Westview Press, p. 2)
[17] David Anderson says that Putnam's internal realism
"keeps much of the spirit of each of the seven tenets of traditional
realism." (Anderson, David (1992), p. 76) Of these tenets
[18] Putnam, Hilary (1981), p. 52.
[19] Putnam, Hilary (1990), Realism with a Human Face,
[20] For example, Chad Hansen uses this interpretation. See
[21] Lee, Jung H. (1998), p. 448.
[22] Philip J. Ivanhoe gives a good critique of Hansen's
radical relativistic interpretation of Zhuangzi. Under such an interpretation, Zhuangzi would be holding the view that all perspectives
are equally valid and all judgments are equally good. Ivanhoe says, "Hansen is correct to
describe Zhuangzi as a skeptic regarding language,
but…. such a view does not entail strong relativism." See Ivanhoe, Philip J. (1996), p. 202.
[23] Putnam, Hilary (1981), p. 64
[24] Lisa Raphals argues that
skepticism and relativism are mutually exclusive in that "skepticism
precludes relativism." She says,
"A skeptical thesis holds that we cannot know anything; a relativist
thesis holds that we can know, but knowing is relative to our (individual,
cultural, etc.) perspective. To put it another way, if we doubt our ability to recognize truth
(the skeptical position), we must also doubt our ability to know that there
isn't any (the relativist position)." See Raphals, Lisa
(1996), 'Skeptical Strategies in the Zhuangzi and Theaetetus,' in Kjellberg &
Ivanhoe (1996), pp. 26-49, p. 29. In my
analysis, this incompatibility between the interpretation of Zhuangzi as a skeptic and the interpretation of Zhuangzi as a relativist is dissolved. Zhuangzi is a
skeptic with regard to our ability to know Truth2, and he thinks that all other
claims of truth (Truth1) are relative to various perspectives.
[25] Putnam, Hilary (1981), p. 61.
[26] Putnam, Hilary (1990), p. 28.
[27] Heller, Mark (1988), p. 113.