ABSTRACT
From the standpoint of Western philosophy, Daoism seems the most unphilosophical of traditions, bent on subverting the kind of rational discourse which is the very foundation stone of philosophy as it is practised in the West. In both the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, a central theme is the ultimate inaccessibility of the world to the categories of language, and Zhuangzi has often been characterised as a great anti-rationalist who derides the claims of reason and offers us only knacks and skills of a distinctly non-intellectual kind. In this chapter I want to question the assumption, widely held until recently, that Daoism has no philosophical message to convey, and to explore some of the ways in which Daoism and Western philosophical discourse have entered into fruitful conversation in recent times.
