Laozi and Zhuangzi in Relation to Existentialism, Schizoanalysis, and Posthumanism
Laozi and Zhuangzi’s Daoism offers profound parallels and contrasts with existentialism, schizoanalysis (Deleuze & Guattari), and posthumanism. Let’s break it down.
1. Laozi and Zhuangzi in Existentialism: Absurdity, Freedom, and Wu Wei
Existentialism, particularly in Camus, Sartre, and Heidegger, shares deep resonances with Zhuangzi’s skepticism and Laozi’s natural flow.
A. Zhuangzi and Absurdism (Camus)
• Zhuangzi’s world is absurd → Like Camus’ absurd world, Zhuangzi saw human categories (right/wrong, good/bad, life/death) as arbitrary constructs.
• The Butterfly Dream = Radical Absurdism → If there’s no fixed identity, then isn’t life a cosmic joke?
• Camus’ Revolt vs. Zhuangzi’s Laughing Escape
• Camus argued that we should revolt against the absurd without illusions.
• Zhuangzi doesn’t fight the absurd—he laughs at it and lets it be.
B. Laozi and Heidegger’s Gelassenheit (“Letting Be”)
• Heidegger’s Gelassenheit (releasement) echoes Laozi’s wu wei (effortless action).
• Both suggest that forcing things leads to suffering, and wisdom comes from letting things unfold naturally.
Daoist Existentialism?
Unlike existentialists like Sartre, who emphasized radical responsibility, Daoism softens the existentialist burden by suggesting that:
• There is no need to “create” meaning—one simply aligns with the Dao.
• Life is not an existential crisis—it is a continuous flow, and one must ride the river, not fight it.
2. Laozi and Zhuangzi in Schizoanalysis (Deleuze & Guattari)
If existentialism struggles with absurdity, schizoanalysis embraces the breakdown of fixed identity—just like Zhuangzi’s wild philosophy.
A. Zhuangzi’s “Becoming” and Deleuze & Guattari’s “Becoming-Animal”
• In Zhuangzi’s world, everything is in flux—humans turn into fish, fish turn into birds, and reality itself is uncertain.
• Deleuze & Guattari’s becoming-animal concept echoes this:
• The self is not fixed but an assemblage of flows, intensities, and mutations.
• Instead of “being,” reality is about constant becoming—just like in Zhuangzi’s shape-shifting metaphors.
B. Daoist Deterritorialization
• Zhuangzi’s skepticism toward fixed identities = Schizoanalytic deterritorialization (escaping rigid structures of thought).
• Both reject hierarchical, rigid categories and celebrate multiplicity.
• Zhuangzi’s wandering sages are nomadic figures, much like Deleuze’s nomadic thought.
C. Wu Wei as an Anti-Oedipal Flow
• Laozi’s wu wei (effortless action) aligns with Deleuze’s “flow of desire.”
• Wu wei is not passivity but an active engagement without resistance—similar to desiring-production in schizoanalysis.
Daoist Schizoanalysis?
Deleuze & Guattari would love Zhuangzi’s rejection of authority, boundaries, and rigid selfhood.
• Instead of being a “good subject” → Be a flowing, laughing, wandering body.
• Instead of seeking identity → Dissolve into multiplicities.
3. Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Posthumanism: Beyond the Human Subject
Posthumanism deconstructs the humanist subject—just as Daoism dissolves rigid identity and celebrates entanglement with nature and machines.
A. Posthumanist Ontology = Daoist Non-Dualism
• Western humanism prioritizes rational, autonomous individuals.
• Daoism, like posthumanism, deconstructs the “self” as an illusion—humans are just one form among many, entangled in the flow of the Dao.
• Zhuangzi’s transformations (man → butterfly, useless tree → ultimate survivor) anticipate posthumanist fluidity of identity.
B. Laozi’s Dao as a Posthumanist Ecology
• Posthumanism critiques anthropocentrism, emphasizing non-human agency.
• Laozi’s Dao is a force beyond human control, aligning with posthumanist views of distributed agency (where humans, animals, and environments co-shape reality).
• “Be like water” → Flow across boundaries, rather than being confined to “human” definitions.
C. Daoism and AI/Posthuman Cyborgs
• If the self is an illusion, then is an AI-enhanced being still “human”?
• Zhuangzi would say yes, but also no—identity is always shifting, so distinctions between human, machine, and nature are ultimately meaningless.
• This resonates with posthuman cyborg theory (Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto), which argues that human identity is already a hybrid of biology, technology, and environment.
Daoist Posthumanism?
Instead of worrying about the end of the human, Daoism suggests that:
• There was never a fixed, autonomous human to begin with—only a fluid, interconnected process.
• Instead of resisting posthuman change, we should embrace it as just another transformation in the Dao.
Final Thought: How Should We Live?
|
Philosophy |
Problem |
Daoist Response |
|
Existentialism |
Meaning is not given, so we must create it. |
No need—ride the Dao and let things be. |
|
Schizoanalysis |
Identity is oppressive, and we must escape its limits. |
There is no fixed identity anyway—wander freely like Zhuangzi’s butterfly. |
|
Posthumanism |
The human is dissolving into technology, AI, and nature. |
That’s fine—humans were never separate from nature or technology in the first place. |
Conclusion: Daoism as an Alternative to Modern Anxiety
• Existentialists worry about meaning → Laozi says stop forcing it.
• Schizoanalysis fights rigid identities → Zhuangzi says you were never one thing anyway.
• Posthumanism mourns the end of the “human” → Daoism says there was never a fixed “human” to begin with.
Would you like to apply these Daoist insights to the philosophy of van life, psychotherapy, or AI ethics?
