Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action

Valmisa, Mercedes. 2021. Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

(1) How do we act wisely in the world?

(2) Facing fate, how should we act?

 

(1) Action

The modes of Action:

1, prescriptive actions abide by rules

2, forceful actions force objects to follow the agent itself (follow me!)

3, critical actions find evidence

 

Adapting (因) is a meta-model of action, it adopts any mode of action depending on changing circumstances. “Adapting precisely consists in not adhering to any particular standard of action…” (p.17) “The adaptive agent overcomes both absolutism (as he can appreciate things from different perspectives) and relativism (as he can make decisions and engage in efficacious action).” (pp.29-30)

 

Chapter 2 separates adapting from other similar concepts, like flexibility, relying, conformity, balancing (权), and spontaneity (自然).

 

Chapter 3 explores adapting in military literature.

 

 

 

(2) Fate

Fate always is understood as reification (物化) (p.99), and it is out of human control.

 

How to cope with uncertainty? (chapter 5)

1, Prescriptive Agency: Conforming, e.g. Calendar

2, Philosophical Proposals:

Turn inward (穷达以时): Fate is the outside. What should we focus on is the inside.

Turn outward (庄子): Shifting the problem and giving up the dichotomy between self and fate. “The strategy of the Zhuangzi’s friends is entirely different: they advocate for embracing the relationality of the situations and transformations that conform life in their full necessity, welcoming every possible turn in a creative way as a means to maximize control; in other words, turning outward.” (p.147)

 

The author proposes the unifying pattern. “everything that is (phenomena) and everything that happens (events) belongs to the world much as to the person.” (p.149) They are experiences of nonduality, such as reading, walking, swimming, and playing piano. (p.150) “The unity of inner and outer cancels the dualistic relationship of confrontational distance between humans and fate.” (p.164) The playful agent is experiencing the entire world as a self-enabling playground, playing in a non-agonistic sense. (pp.168-169)