Comparative Study On Laozi And Heidegger's Thoughts Of Philosophy And Aesthetics

This paper first examines the relation of Laozi's thought with Heidegger's life experience, as well as the impact on Heidegger's text and thought; as followed it focuses on the analysis of some basic themes in associated thought of the two, the absorption of Heidegger from Laozi't thought, and the affection of Laozi's thought to Heidegger's language methods and ways of thinking, and particularly concerned about Heidegger's misconceptions on Laozi and East Asian thought.In the text, the paper focuses on the Tao of natural nonaction and analysizes the heaven and earth, human, the relations between Tao and heaven and earth, and that between Tao and human. It also interprets Laozi's fundamental aesthetic thought based on Nature. Secondly, it analysis's the world (as a clue) as a whole in three periods of Heidegger's thought. It focuses of the world of his late thought of Geviert: the heaven, the earth, the mortal(die Sterblichen) and the God. The aesthetic theory that is as poetic as a fundament is also be explained. Finally it is the comparison of Laozi and Heidegger's meaning of world, the former is related with Laozi's theory of the Four Greatness, and the late Heidegger's Geviert theory in his late thought.In addition to comparing the two fundamentally different in the world as a whole, the paper also pays particular attention to the difference between the constituent elements of the each world. This difference also causes difference aesthetical and life attitude, which are seemingly similar, but in reality different.In the first chapter Laozi's Tao, Tao is attributed to road, rules and guidelines. Tao in existence, levels of the law and the meaning of life, these three meanings are owned to Tao itself as noumenon. The relationship between You and Wu shows as You-Wu-Xuantong(“????”),You and Wu grow out of one another, and You comes from Wu. And this kind of You and Wu are different from the presence or absence of specific objects on the metaphysical level. Laozi's world is reflected in the Daode Jing Chapter25, which is as Tao follows nature(“????”)as foundation, the world of heaven, earth and human exist by grade series. But because of Tao follows nature, everything is modeling from itself, that is to say, it is to maintain its own nature as a fundamental. According to the attitude that human how to face Tao, human can be divided into several kinds. The most important men are the enlightenment of the saints. Through his Sun(“?”)he pursues Tao and demonstrates the "benevolence" and "selfless" spirit. His political ideal is a quietism society, which is small country with small population(“????”).The second chapter Laozi's Opinion on Beauty analyzes Laozi's aesthetic idea which based on Tao. Laozi's aesthetic ideology is different from Confucianism. Which it pursues is not the unity of "beauty" and "good", but "beauty" and "true". This unity of "beauty" and "ture" directly affected the standard aesthetic tradition Miao(?)The aesthetic manifestations is Ziran("??”),Xujing(“??”),Rouruo("??”),Wuwei(“??”),which are closely related with Laozi's requires to Wuyu("??”),Quzhi("??”),Buy an(“??”)These are shows in appearance as natural, unadorned which root in Nature, instead of clever accessories and flashy. Especially in the interpretation to Rouruo(“??"), this paper is emphasizing Zhixiong Shouci(“????”),that strengths strong and weak, hardness and softness both can not to be neglected. So Laozi did not only emphasize softness and oppose to hardness. Instead, hardness is as the basis and it is through softness to show itself. The aesthetic philosophy which pursues "true" is relates with naive of life attitude of "inaction and all action"('‘??????”).The third chapter "Heidegger's World" expounds on the change of Heidegger's world's connotation. The theme of Heidegger's thinking is Nothing(das Nichts). The meaning of the "world" in his early time is the Dasein's being in the world, then in mid-time the world is that fights with the earth, and ultimately it develops to the Geviert World of Heaven, Earth, Mortal and God's play together. In these different worlds human plays different roles. In Heidegger's early time, Dasein's Being in the World is also Being in Nothing. This means that the deprivation is inescapable fate of Dasein. In his thought of middle time, human is in the history of Conceal of Being. Human questions the truth of existence by works of art, and the truth is displayed in the struggle of the earth and the world which are revealed in works.In his late thought, human is fully equal role as the other three roles in the Geviert world, he is also called by language just as heaven, earth and God. Heidegger's late thinking shows moderate quiet based on the identity of Being, Thinking and Language. This stems from the development of thinking from the early, middle and late, it gradually cleared the remnants of metaphysical ideology to "set up", and regress to origin manifests of Being itself. This is reflected particularly evident in his later thinking on Poetic and the Paly of Geviert World.The Chapter Four "Heidegger's Beauty of Poetic" elaborates Heidegger's aesthetic ideas in his late thinking. This Aesthetics is different from the traditional and it is starting from the show of Being itself and as a performance "Poetic Living". Poetic is a scale "to accept", which is different from "to set up" of the traditional metaphysical reason. Living is Being, then poetic living expresses as that human retains its own nature. Homeless means that human is away from Being, therefore human needs to return home. Instead of a reality back to the actual home, Heidegger's return home is in the ideological regression for only our thinking can be as a building offers the living to Being. Then both living and return home require us to learn to think:to give up own will and try to learn to listen and accept.The Chapter5"Tao and World" is comparison of Laozi and Heidegger thought on World. The difference on the whole is that Laozi's "Four Greatness" is natural. There is a sequence in the four role and they are rule by Tao together. However Heidegger's Geviert World is particular ruled by language and the four roles equal coexist. As for the specific constitutes of the two worlds there are also significant differences:In Laozi's world, God does not own an important position; on the contrary, the natural heaven and erath, as a symbol of Heaven as Tian Tao(??), they can have lofty status just as the Western God. As for Laozi human which can walk along the Tao are the lords of creation, the Saint is immortal; but for Heidegger human who are called by language are going to death; who is immortal can only be God. This chapter also discriminate these following topics which both Laozi and Heidegger cover:"Tao" and "way","Sage","give borth" and "Ereignis","Fan""Fu"("?""?") and "return" and so on. These concepts have relation and some similarities, however still more significant differences.Chapter6"Nature and Poetic" is a comparison of Laozi and Heidegger's aesthetic thought. Not only there are great differences between these two concepts themselves, and also the thinking and attitude to life which are ruled by them are different. Laozi's "Light" and "Dark"/"Xuan"(“?”)are unlike Heidegger's Lichtung(“????”)which is revealing and meanwhile concealing itself; Laozi's Nature is different from Heidegger's scale of "accept"; the "Fear"(“?”)to the living world is not the "fear"("Angst") to Being,"dynamic" and "Static","Silence" and "Sound" are also different. However, among so many differences, the aesthetic state of Laozi and Heidegger owns more similarity than the two in ideological philosophy:"inaction","indisputable" and "Gelassenheit" are both indifferent attitude without interference to things and let things maintain their own nature,.Seen from the above analysis, Laozi and Heidegger's philosophy and Aesthetics are complex structures composed of many concepts, propositions and judgments, and the difference of idea between the two is huge. Nevertheless, the subject of their thoughts and axis still own a significant common ground, that is:to solve the fundamental problem of human existence and essence. It is the deep historical reasons why people quite common think that Heidegger's thinking can be connected to Laozi, and why Heidegger himself actually to understand Laozi's thought. However, due to the historical background and the huge difference of periods, they take different approaches to the problem of human's alienation. Heidegger is in the20th century against the alienation of people; Laozi thought highly of personality but had no individual consciousness, while Heidegger emphasizes both on individuality and personality.