IB Philosophy 10.10.4 the Self as Relational and Dynamic Notes

The Taoist Self: Against Substance and Permanence

1. As established in 10.10.1, the Tao is characterised by formlessness, emptiness, and constant transformation. The Taoist conception of the self follows directly from this. If the ultimate principle of reality is not a fixed substance but an ongoing process, then human identity must also be understood as processual rather than substantial (a flow of change rather than a fixed thing).
2. The Tao Te Ching rejects what Western philosophy calls substance metaphysics: the view, most clearly articulated by Descartes, that the self is a thinking substance (res cogitans, "the thing that thinks") whose identity persists through time as a stable, unified core. For Lao Tzu, this mistakes a temporary pattern within the flow of the Tao for an independent, self-subsistent entity.
3. Chapter 16 describes the cyclical movement of return: "All things flourish, but each one returns to its root; returning to its root means stillness; stillness means returning to destiny." The self, like all beings, participates in this cycle: emergence, flourishing, decline, and return to the undifferentiated source.
4. The concept of wu wo (no-self) does not mean the self is an illusion to be overcome, as in some Buddhist interpretations of anatta (the Buddhist doctrine of no-fixed-self). Rather, it means that the rigid, ego-centred self built up by social conventions, competitive ambition, and possessive desire is an artificial overlay that hides the more fundamental experience of being continuous with the Tao.
5. The Taoist self is relational in the deepest sense: your identity is not determined by some fixed inner property but by your position within a web of relationships with other people, other living beings, and the natural world.
6. As discussed in 10.10.3, the uncarved block (pu) represents the self before these relationships have been distorted by artificial social categories.

The Relational and Dynamic Nature of the Self

1. This relational view of selfhood has significant parallels with Confucian role ethics (the Confucian view that a person's identity is defined by the roles they occupy: ruler-subject, parent-child, husband-wife, elder-younger, friend-friend).
2. While Confucianism emphasises structured, hierarchical relationships governed by ritual propriety, Taoism emphasises spontaneous, non-hierarchical interconnection with all things.
3. The Tao Te Ching's understanding of the self as dynamic and changing connects to the Core Theme's exploration of identity over time (discussed in 1.1.2). Lao Tzu would reject any account of personal identity that requires a fixed essence persisting through change.
4. The self is the change itself: a pattern of transformation rather than a thing that undergoes transformation.
5. The image of water, central to the Tao Te Ching's ethical vision (discussed in 10.10.2), also serves as a metaphor for the self: water has no fixed shape of its own but takes the form of whatever contains it, flows around obstacles rather than confronting them, and constantly moves and transforms while remaining fundamentally itself.
6. The Taoist critique of the fixed self has epistemological implications too. If the self is not a stable observer standing outside the world but a participant within the Tao's ceaseless movement, then the ideal of detached, objective knowledge championed by Descartes and Western empiricism is fundamentally misguided. This theme is explored further in 10.10.6.

The Self in Relation to Nature and Others