Past Events

Events Calendar

Erica Brindley (Pennsylvania State University): "Spontaneous Arising" and an Ethics of the Creative Change in the Early Daoist Text, Heng xian
Thursday, 21 April 2016,  4:30pm -  6:00pm

Location: Brower Commons A

 

This talk examines a relatively short, newly excavated bamboo text called the Heng xian in terms of its views on creative change. Professor Erica Brindley shows that, rather than focus on wu-wei (effortless action) per se, the author presents an account of the creation of the entire cosmos, which lays the foundation for understanding the fundamental process of creativity intrinsic in the cosmos: that of "spontaneous arising (zi zuo 自作)." He then uses his cosmological account of spontaneous arising to serve as the basis for an ethics of creative change, applicable to the human world of politics and individual action, thought, naming, and belief. After outlining the meaning and importance of creative change in the early cosmos, Professor Brindley shows how the author's version of spontaneous arising serves as a positive formulation of wu-wei in the human world. She also shows how this particular, positive manner of articulating a Daoist ideal of action is philosophically subtle, insofar as it presupposes a certain ever-changing concept of the self in space and time.