ABSTRACT
Let the following describe Zhuangzi, 荘子 (c.369-286 BCE): playful and earnest, irrever-
ent yet respectful, deep while seemingly superficial, sceptical but wise, pragmatic yet
unconcerned with this world, sensible and coarse, serious while mocking and mockingly
serious, one and many, most unassuming and yet a philosophical firework! When
embodied in him, these pairs are ‘complementary pairs,’ not contraries, just in the sense
that J. Scott Kelso and David Engstrøm mean when they argue, based on coordination
dynamics and in accord with Niels Bohr’s maxim Contraria sunt complementa, for a
dynamic view of complementarity rather than opposition (2008). This also sets the tone
as to how to approach the many paradoxical stances his views adopt. Trying to pin
down the Daoist is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. Zhuangzi endorses
a position of non-position: he opposes opposition when he often confronts his friend
Huizi, 惠子, a logician from the School of Names (the Ancient Chinese equivalent of
contemporary analytic philosophy of language) (Wu and Zhuangzi 1990). For example,
in their famous encounter over the river Hao, the former comments on how happy the
fish are, while the latter argues that Zhuangzi, not being a fish, cannot know how they
feel. The denouement to this story will come much later, in the last essay’s discussion
on intersubjectivity and private mental lives that closes this project. First, some back-
ground concerning the Daoist and those views of his relevant for this study.
