THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DAODEJING

KILE JONES

ABSTRACT

One of the main texts of Daoism, the Daodejing, presents scholars (specifically Western)
with many difficulties. Most Western scholars in the tradition of Wittgenstein, Russell, and
Frege would dissect the sentences of the Daodejing into truth value, internal consistency,
and propositional attitude which are a far cry, methodologically speaking, from what the
Daodejing was meant for and concerned with; therefore, approaching the philosophy of
this text as a Western-minded individual places me in the humbling position of wrestling
through this ancient book and searching for its meaning. Since it is obvious that the
methodology of the West and the East differs so radically a few comments are in order about
the way in which this paper will be structured. Rather than approaching this text as an
‘other’ that needs to be opposed and eventually refuted, I will attempt to lay out what I feel
the Daodejing itself considers primary. Upon reading this text it becomes apparent that a
few concepts are extremely important, not just for Western concerns, but for the concerns
of the writer(s) themselves. These few concepts are the Dao, the One, the nature of Paradox,
Ziran, and Wu Wei.