Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 22, 07 December 2023
Open
Access | Article
Lao Zi’s Metaethical Thought from “Te” in Tao Te Ching
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Abstract
Tao Te Ching, a spiritual treasure of Lao Zi, has been searched by numerous scholars many times. However, searching for “Te” from a metaphysical perspective is rare but valuable. By looking up and analyzing “Te” in Tao Te Ching, the metaphysical definition of “Te” is a law that humans and nature obey. “Te” is related to concepts such as “Tao” and “goodness,” which reveal the hierarchical frame of the ethical subjects in Tao Te Ching, and the article also clarifies the difference between “Te” and “goodness”. Moreover, it proves that Lao Zi is a naturalist philosopher and believes “Te” originates from nature, since the source of “Te” is “Tao”, which human intention does not interfere with. Therefore, it fixes the blanket on searching for metaphysical “Te” and builds up a frame on the significant ethical subjects in Tao Te Ching, which could help people better understand and research the philosophical thoughts of Lao Zi.
Keywords
Te, Tao Te Ching, metaethics
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-187-2
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-188-9
- Published Date
- 07 December 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/22/20231585
- Copyright
- 07 December 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited