Dichotomies and penumbrae: The significance of boundaries in early Chinese thinking

This dissertation explores the conception of boundaries in early Daoist philosophy, and specifically in the Zhuangzi. I use as interpretive devices the western linguistic concepts of vagueness, open texture , and family resemblance, together with several western interpretive methodologies, to explore the significance of drawing boundaries and making distinctions---both linguistic and ontological. By contrasting the Daoist attitude that respects indeterminacy with the bivalent logical system of the later Mohist Canon I draw out significances of early Daoist philosophy that do not appear through the traditional interpretive lenses of skepticism and relativism.