PHIL-110 Introduction to Chinese Taoism
This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the worldview of Chinese Taoism, using the methods and categories of philosophy and including the historical and cultural milieu of China, traditional Chinese landscape painting as expressive of Taoist philosophy, and an examination of the wisdom texts Tao Te Ching and Chuang-tzu. Focus will be on the analytic categories of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology.
Prerequisite
Eligible to enroll in
ENGL-121
Hours Weekly
1
Course Objectives
- 1. Analyze Taoism’s worldview on metaphysics, with respect to self, human existence, the cosmos, and ultimate reality; on epistemology or knowledge theory; and on axiology or values with respect to ethics and the moral life.
- 2. Compare and contrast Taoism and Western philosophy under the categories of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology.
- 3. Explain the impact of Taoist images, including the valley, the female, the useless tree, the uncarved block, and emptiness as shapers of Chinese aesthetic and ethical perspectives.
- 4. Examine the Chinese worldview of the Tao as an explanatory principle, using nature as a model for the social order, comparing it to Western worldviews.
Course Objectives
- 1. Analyze Taoism’s worldview on metaphysics, with respect to self, human existence, the cosmos, and ultimate reality; on epistemology or knowledge theory; and on axiology or values with respect to ethics and the moral life.
- 2. Compare and contrast Taoism and Western philosophy under the categories of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology.
- 3. Explain the impact of Taoist images, including the valley, the female, the useless tree, the uncarved block, and emptiness as shapers of Chinese aesthetic and ethical perspectives.
- 4. Examine the Chinese worldview of the Tao as an explanatory principle, using nature as a model for the social order, comparing it to Western worldviews.