Abstract

I challenge a popular interpretation of Zhuangzi, a Daoist philosopher from the fourth century B.C.E., according to which he advocates withdrawal from society. Many commentators have assumed that Zhuangzi's ideal is incompatible with social participation. I argue instead that Zhuangzi presupposes human society as the inevitable background within which human development unfolds. ;I begin by locating Zhuangzi's thought within the context of ancient Chinese philosophy by discussing the attitudes toward social and political participation of the Yangists and the Confucians. My treatment of Confucianism highlights certain strands of thought which have analogs in Zhuangzi. Though these ideas have generally been recognized as compatible with social concern in the case of the Confucians, their presence in Zhuangzi has been taken as evidence that his ideal is incompatible with social participation. ;I argue that the popular reading of Zhuangzi faces insurmountable difficulties, both textual and conceptual. It cannot make sense of a number of passages in which Zhuangzi suggests that our immersion in a social context is in some sense inevitable, and of a key passage in which Zhuangzi rejects the strategy of withdrawal as not a viable option. I argue that this view is based upon a misunderstanding of the scope of his comments critical of conventional modes of social and political participation. I present and defend my alternative interpretation, according to which Zhuangzi's conception of human development is sufficiently subtle to allow for remaining within society, yet escaping the problematic attachments typically associated with social participation. ;I conclude with a discussion of the relevance of Zhuangzi's thought to debates about rights in contemporary social and political philosophy. Western discussions of rights have often been based upon an unrealistic atomistic view of the individual as independent of society, and I argue that we may look to Zhuangzi's thought for an alternative understanding of the ground of individual rights. Zhuangzi offers a potential contribution to the debate by justifying the protection of the individual against unwarranted interference from the state or other individuals, while nonetheless doing justice to the crucial role of society in providing the environment for appropriate human development