| This dissertation examines the question of the relationship between Chuang Tzu's ontology and his conception of self and mind, and how this relationship between ontology and conception of self and mind connects to Chuang Tzu's ideas regarding cultivation of the "true self," virtue, transformation, liberation, and his metaphor of the "mirror" in Taoist philosophy. Chuang Tzu often uses the mirror as a way to expose his ontic notions about self and mind as being "steady" and "reflective." This also emerges in Chan Buddhism and has been compared to the apophasis of Neoplatonic mysticism. Chuang Tzu's conception of "self," ji, [Special character missing], and "mind," hsin, [Special character missing], is a subject that has been discussed by many scholars, such as A. C. Graham, Chad Hansen, and Chris Jochim, in relationship to what they perceive as his skepticism and relativism within his epistemology and psychology of the self and mind, as exhibited in his use of parables and stories that contain negative metaphors, tropes and allegories. While these scholars marginally discuss and acknowledge the metaphysics and ontology in Chuang Tzu's text, they do not actually pursue a completely ontological analysis of Chuang Tzu's philosophy, and in particular his ideas about self and mind that are crucial and central to his philosophy. |
