Knowledge And True Knowledge-an Epistemological Interpretation On The Zhuangzi

The dissertation attempts to transcend the traditional way of annotating and commentating the Zhuangzi and the way of interpreting the Zhuangzi from the perspectives of Confucianism or Buddhism, but based on the former research with a theoretical background of modern and contemporary philosophy, it attempts to logically reconstruct the epistemological system of the Zhuangzi by starting the philosophical questions. Specifically, this dissertation seeks to systematically explore a series of issues involved in the epistemology of the Zhuangzi from the perspective of epistemology.Starting with the controversies of Zhuangzi and the Zhuangzi, despite the divergent opinions concerning the division of the "Inner Chapters", "Outer Chapters" and "Miscellaneous Chapters" and the authorship of each chapter, the dissertation takes the Zhuangzi as a whole as the object of study and systematically explore its inherent implication by suspending its authorship and neglecting its division while paying more attention to the book per se and developing a comprehensive research because Zhuangzi's personality and his attitudes towards Dao are generally quite fit with the philosophical spirit in the Zhuangzi, so as to avoid overgeneralization.The first chapter is to examine the cognitive objects and their properties in the epistemology of the Zhuangzi. As the two polarized aspects of cognitive activities, the subject and the object always run through human cognition and practice, hence their connection is undoubtedly essential for the study of epistemology. Any cognitive activity of the subject must be pointing at an object, which becomes the object of cognition, therefore this dissertation is to start from the cognitive object, that is, to mainly expound the forms and properties of the cognitive objects in the epistemology of the Zhuangzi. On accepting the former classification of Dao and Wu (Thing), this thesis is to further analyze the cognitive objects in Zhuangzi's epistemology into three forms:Xing (Form), Jing (Essence) and Dao:Due to its visible character, Xing is referred to the external aspects of things, which are confined within the domain of sensory experience; Jing is referred to the invisible aspects of things but not yet shapeless, which can be reached by intellectual thinking in idea. Dao that has no bodily form transcends both the perceptual form of Shape(Xing) and the rational dimension of Essence (Jing). The classification of three specific existential forms is not only conformed to the inherent logic of Zhuangzi's thought, but also coincident with its role in succeeding his predecessors and inspiring the posterities on the evolution of the distinction of Dao and Thing.The second chapter seeks to examine three different ways to know or grasp the different forms of objects:Sense perception ("?" Jie) is the way to perceive the Shape ("?" Xing); Rationality or intellectual thinking ("?" Mo) is employed to reach the Essence("?" Jing); Intuition or direct experience ("?" Xu) is the way to grasp Dao. Let's take auditory sense as an example. Jie ("? ") means to hear with ears, Mo ("? ") means to hear with minds; but Xu ("?") implies to hear with air ("?" Qi), which transcends the limitations of sensibility and rationality.The third chapter aims to demonstrate that the knower (subject) has cognitive abilities to know objects in the empirical world on the one hand, but it also encounters some inevitable limitations to reach Dao on the other hand. Zhuangzi attempts to find a way to reach or grasp Dao by transcending the limitations of traditional logic, which is in a sense close to intuition or direct experience.In the last chapter, I basically focus on the three levels of knowledge from the perspective of methodology. With the traditional logics such as sense perception and rationality, we can simply acquire two modes or levels of knowledge:worldly knowledge(????)and empirical knowledge(????).Strictly speaking, the former cannot really be taken as knowledge but at most a personal opinion from the perspective of one's own; the latter can be held as general knowledge from a relatively objective perspective, but can be valid within the domain of empirical world. In contrast, the highest level of knowledge is Dao, which can be taken as a universal wisdom from the perspective of Dao. Judging from his attitudes to the three levels of knowledge, Zhuangzi's epistemology can be substantially taken as absolutism of anti-relativism, although it appears to be relativism.