The Tao of the West: Western Tranformations of Taoist Thought

by Clarke,J.J.

• ISBN13: 9780415206204
• ISBN10: 0415206200
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-06-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

InThe Tao of the West,J. J. Clarke shows us how Taoism has transformed many key areas of Western life and thought. Taoist texts, ideas and practices have over several centuries been assimilated into a whole range of interests and activities found in the West. From the everyday impact of practices such as Feng Shui and Tai Chi to more esoteric formulations found in religion, philosophy, ethics, politics, and ecology, Taoism has inspired the Western world.The Tao of the Westnot only provides a fascinating introduction to Taoism but offers a timely insight into the history of the West's encounter with this ancient tradition.

Author Biography

J.J. Clarke has taught philosophy at McGill University, Montreal, and at the University of Singapore, and is currently Reader in History of Ideas at Kingston University, UK. He is the author of In Search of Jung, Jung and Eastern Thought and Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought, all published by Routledge.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
`The Way that can be told': introduction	1	(15)
Orientations and disorientations	1	(8)
Ways and means	9	(3)
The way to the West	12	(4)
`The meaning is not the meaning': on the nature of Daoism	16	(21)
What is Daoism	16	(6)
The `Three Teachings'	22	(6)
Historical origins	28	(9)
`Cramped scholars': Western interpretations of Daoism	37	(26)
Daoism under Western gaze	37	(13)
Reading Daoism	50	(13)
`The Great Clod': Daoist natural philosophy	63	(27)
Order out of chaos	63	(6)
Cosmology: the standard picture	69	(5)
Science: a new paradigm	74	(7)
Environmentalism: new ways	81	(9)
`Going rambling without destination': moral explorations	90	(27)
Daoist moral vision	90	(5)
The ethics of self-cultivation	95	(8)
The politics of anarchism	103	(8)
Women and gender	111	(6)
`The transformation of things': the alchemy of life, sex and health	117	(23)
The Way of immortality	117	(5)
The Way of inner cultivation	122	(6)
The Way of sexuality	128	(8)
The Way of good health	136	(4)
`The Way is incommunicable': transcendence	140	(26)
Mysticism	140	(9)
Mysticism made visible: landscape painting	149	(10)
Transcendence	159	(7)
`The twitter of birds': philosophical themes	166	(28)
Thinking differences	166	(9)
Scepticism, relativism and irrationalism	175	(9)
Postmodernism	184	(10)
`Journey to the West': by way of concluding	194	(18)
Beyond orientalism	194	(9)
Beyond Daoism	203	(9)
Appendix I: Chinese dynastic chronology	212	(1)
Appendix II: Wade--Giles/Pinyin conversion table	213	(1)
Notes	214	(20)
Bibliography	234	(25)
Name index	259	(6)
Subject index	265