"huainanzi Ecological Worldview Brief Discussion

The criticism, reflection and reconstruction on worldview are very important to the solution of global environmental crisis. In the West, the worldview of positivism and mechanism are declining while the ecological worldview is becoming popular. My thesis is meant to demonstrate what Huai Nan Zi means to environmental philosophy. Natural-centralism is the axiom of Taoism. Huai Nan Zi has inherited the tradition; moreover, it takes Tao to unite the universe, and forms a particular worldview-the natural-holism. In Huai Nan Zi , the combined ecological thoughts based on the unity and totality worldview can be seen in the following: first of all, the heaven and earth is the organism breeding the nature - the father and mother, inside the organism there is an unceasing breeding process. Second, as one kind of all creatures on earth, human being is the same essentially as other kinds. As long as human being can change their parochial opinions and treat non-human beings with a general attitude, human being can coexist with them. Third, Huai Nan Zi acknowledges the objective values and breaks the parochial anthropocentrism with the value of equality. It shows the total connection and creativity. Lastly, Huai Nan Zi makes the "inaction" as the highest standard of human behavior and holds that "inaction" is "action" actually, because only under the premise of "inaction" which follows the rules of the nature can all the creatures on earth "doing" and "doing for oneself, all the creatures can give plays to their potential energy and develop with their living models. From the above analysis of the structure and content of Huai Nan Zi , My thesis reveals the particular epistemology, which is significant to the discourse of the contemporary environmental philosophy .