41. To Speak or Not to Speak: Skepticism in the Zhuangzi

We introduce the second great classic of Warring States Daoism, the Zhuangzi, and ask whether it adopts a position of radical skepticism.

• A.C. Graham (trans.), Chuang-Tzu: the Seven Inner Chapters and Other Writings from the Book Chuang-tzu (London: 1981).

• B. Ziporyn (trans.), Zhuangzi: the Complete Writings (Indianapolis: 2020).

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• R.E. Allinson, “On the Question of Relativism in the Chuang-tzu,” Philosophy East and West 39 (1989), 13–26.

• E.Y. Chinn, “Zhuangzi and Relativistic Skepticism,” Asian Philosophy 7 (1997), 207-220. 

• W.W. Chiu, “Zhuangzi’s Knowing-How and Skepticism,” Philosophy East and West 68 (2018), 1062-84.

• K.-C. Chong (ed.), Dao Companion to the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi (Dordrecht: 2022).

• T. Connolly, “Perspectivism as a Way of Knowing in the Zhuangzi,” Dao 10 (2011), 487–505.

• C. Fraser, “Skepticism and Value in the Zhuangzi,” International Philosophical Quarterly 49 (2009), 439-57.

• C. Hansen, “Guru or Skeptic? Relativistic Skepticism in the Zhuangzi” in S. Cook (ed.), Hiding the World in the World: Uneven Discourses on the Zhuangzi (Albany: 2003), 128-62.

• P.J. Ivanhoe, “Zhuangzi on Skepticism, Skill, and the Ineffable Dao,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 61 (1993), 639-54.

• P. Kjellberg and P.J. Ivanhoe (eds), Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi (Albany: 1996).

• E. Klein, “Were There ‘Inner Chapters’ in the Warring States? A New Examination of Evidence about the Zhuangzi,” T’oung Pao 96 (2010), 299–369. 

• L. Knaul, “Kuo Hsiang and the Chuang Tzu,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 12 (1985), 429-47.

• B.W. Van Norden, “Competing Interpretations of the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi,” Philosophy East and West 46 (1996), 247-68.

• D.B. Wong, “Zhuangzi and the Obsession with Being Right,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 22 (2005), 91-110.

• D.B. Wong, “Constructive Skepticism and Being a Mirror in the Zhuangzi,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 44 (2017), 53-70. 

Stanford Encyclopedia: Zhuangzi