Description du projet
Étudier de plus près la métaphysique chinoise
Le Dao De Jing est l’un des plus importants travaux taoïstes de la philosophie chinoise. Sa strate métaphysique sera reconstruite en s’appuyant sur une approche méréologique (l’étude des parties et des ensembles qu’elles forment). Le projet Mereodao, financé par l’UE, analysera les éléments fondamentaux de la métaphysique taoïste, en l’utilisant comme point de départ à d’autres étapes de la reconstruction, dont les règles de la composition, de la temporalité et de la causalité. L’étude examinera la manière dont la reconstruction est liée à l’emplacement, une question largement débattue dans la littérature méréologique contemporaine. Globalement, le projet comblera les lacunes de la recherche dans le domaine de la métaphysique chinoise avec des reconstructions méréologiques et analytiques, et il offrira une conceptualisation du système métaphysique taoïste.
Objectif
The project is a mereological reconstruction of the metaphysical system in the Daodejing. The general motivation for the project is to fill the gap in Chinese and comparative philosophy the state of the art, where mereological as well as analytic reconstructions are scarce. The specific motivation is that mereological approach enables precise reconstruction that (a) offers a comprehensive conceptualization of Daoist metaphysical system and (b) allows to generate the issues and plausibly debates that so far have not been present in Chinese metaphysics. My project begins with the conceptualization of the Daoist system as monistic-materialistic one, after which I proceed to the mereological reconstruction. By resorting to the latest mereological research, I will analyze the status of the two fundamental elements of Daoist metaphysics, dao and you. Accordingly, I will show that these two ontic subregions should be reconstructed as two different mereological sums determined by atemporal unrestricted composition and temporal restricted composition respectively. Next, I will proceed to reconstructing the relation between the two sums, which will be conceptualized within the framework of Chinese causation theory. I will show that causality applies to the relations between parts that that the two mereological sums overlap. Next, I will proceed to a detailed reconstruction of the whole system, which will involve among others proving that with regard to parthood, the “atomless gunk” conception is more plausible than that of mereological singles. I will also discuss how the reconstruction is related to location, an issue that has been under intense discussion in contemporary mereological literature.
Champ scientifique
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Programme(s)
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Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
OX1 2JD Oxford
Royaume-Uni