The Penumbra Unbound - MXHDR BookWyrm

Paperback, 256 pages

English language

Published by State University of New York Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-7914-5662-0

(1 review)

The Penumbra Unbound is the first English language book-length study of the Neo-Taoist thinker Guo Xiang (d. 312 C.E.), commentator on the classic Taoist text, the Zhuangzi. The author explores Guo's philosophy of freedom and spontaneity, explains its coherence and importance, and shows its influence on later Chinese philosophy, particularly Chan Buddhism. The implications of his thought on freedom versus determinism are also considered in comparison to several positions advanced in the history of Western philosophy, notably those of Spinoza, Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte, and Hegel. Guo's thought reinterprets the classical pronouncements about the Tao so that it in no way signifies any kind of metaphysical absolute underlying appearances, but rather means literally "nothing." This absence of anything beyond appearances is the first premise in Guo's development of a theory of radical freedom, one in which all phenomenal things are "self-so," creating and transforming themselves without depending on any justification beyond …

The Penumbra Unbound is the first English language book-length study of the Neo-Taoist thinker Guo Xiang (d. 312 C.E.), commentator on the classic Taoist text, the Zhuangzi. The author explores Guo's philosophy of freedom and spontaneity, explains its coherence and importance, and shows its influence on later Chinese philosophy, particularly Chan Buddhism. The implications of his thought on freedom versus determinism are also considered in comparison to several positions advanced in the history of Western philosophy, notably those of Spinoza, Kant, Schopenhauer, Fichte, and Hegel. Guo's thought reinterprets the classical pronouncements about the Tao so that it in no way signifies any kind of metaphysical absolute underlying appearances, but rather means literally "nothing." This absence of anything beyond appearances is the first premise in Guo's development of a theory of radical freedom, one in which all phenomenal things are "self-so," creating and transforming themselves without depending on any justification beyond their own temporary being.

2 editions

loppear reviewed The Penumbra Unbound by Brook Ziporyn

outside my competency, but meditatively realized

3 stars

Guo's commentary project as presented is to invert and unify Taoist contrasting themes of social norms (naming) and spontaneity (nature), in a foreshadowing influence for Chan/Zen, to de-emphasize Non-Being as a numinous origin of Being, to ground all things as self-creating in a self-negating "vanishing into" in this translation. Whether this is compelling or utterly circular, Ziporyn does a lovely job mirroring that in steady direct attention to Guo's imagery and language and argument, with only the lightest references to contrasting or comparative philosophical interpretations.

Subjects

Philosophy
Taoism
d. 312
Philosophy, Taoist
Religion
Taoist
Guo, Xiang,
Eastern - Taoism