Oakeshott's Superficial Daoism

Cosmos + Taxis 10 (7 + 8):39-49 (2022)
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Abstract

It is rarely noticed that Oakeshott occasionally quotes the Zhuangzi in Rationalism in Politics. The Zhuangzi was an ancient Daoist text emphasizing the free and wandering life of someone who skillfully acts without pretension or independent purpose. Oakeshott quoted it in support of his own typically Oakeshottian conclusions. But I argue in this paper that Oakeshott misunderstood the actual force of the anecdotes to which he referred. Oakeshott used Daoist wisdom to support his practical philosophy but entirely missed that the Zhuangzi was all about achieving a higher immersion in or indifference to reality, and hence was not about battling against ‘rationalism in politics’ but about transcending rationalism, irrationalism and even practice in order to achieve a higher therapeutic end.

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Jason Dockstader
University College, Cork

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References found in this work

Being Realistic About Reasons.Thomas Scanlon - 2014 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Genuine pretending: on the philosophy of the Zhuangzi.Hans-Georg Moeller - 2017 - New York: Columbia University Press. Edited by Paul J. D'Ambrosio.
Zhuangzi: The Complete Writings trans by Brook Ziporyn.Guo Chen - 2020 - Philosophy East and West 70 (4):1-5.
Oakeshott’s Skepticism and the Skeptical Traditions.John Christian Laursen - 2005 - European Journal of Political Theory 4 (1):37-55.

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