Abstract

By means of comparison between Lao Tzu’s theory of Tao in ancient China and the concept of metaphysics originated from ancient Greece, the author redefined the concept of “form” and therefore, elaborated the ultimate meaning of metaphysics from its Chinese translation. According to the author’s re-interpretation of Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu had resolved the ontological questions in a different way with that of ancient Greek philosophers, and he had answered the question of “One and Many”. In the past, people had mixed the fact that there are actually two different ones in this question, and hence, metaphysics and ontology had been remained in a confused state. By giving an example in natural science, the author had illustrated clearly what is Tao or natural metaphysics,and then extended the idea to moral metaphysics. As a conclusion, the author suggests that it is better to use a new term to replace the imperfectly defined “metaphysics”, for example, metaformology. Both Metaphysics and Ontology are basic concepts of philosophy. However, in the long history of philosophy, both of them have not yet been adequately defined and therefore, caused controversies. Different philosophers referred to them in many different ways, and this can be easily seen in almost every philosophical dictionary. What is the way to settle it down? This is the purpose of this paper.