無為 – On the Eurasian Roots of the Laissez-Faire Doctrine

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Gerlach
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Diffusion Process ◽  
Crystallization Process ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Commercial Society ◽  
The Core ◽  
Wu Wei ◽  
Master Model ◽  
Laissez Faire

Abstract This paper focuses on the diffusion of 無為/ wu-wei (an ancient Chinese concept of political economy) throughout Europe, between 1648 and 1848. It argues that at the core of this diffusion process were three significant developments; first, the importation and active transmission of wu-wei by the Low Countries during the seventeenth century. It is revealed that the details of Chinese expertise entered Europe via the textual diffusion of Jesuit texts and the visual diffusion of millions of so-called minben-images during the ceramic boom of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus, the hypothesis is advanced that the diffusion of wu-wei, co-evolved with the inner-European laissez-faire principle, the Libaniusian model. In the second part, it is shown that the intellectual foundation of Europe’s first economic school, Physiocracy, is a direct replica of the imported Chinese economic, agrarian craftsmanship of wu-wei; subsequently, it is denied that the indigenous European Libaniusian ideology can be considered the intellectual master-model of Physiocracy and his founder Quesnay. Finally, we argue that Switzerland can be identified as the first European paradigm state of wu-wei. The crystallization process of wu-wei inside Europe ultimately ended with the economic-political reorganization of the newly formed Eidgenossenschaft in 1848. The Swiss succeeded in institutionally transforming traditional Chinese agrarian wu-wei into the modern version of European “commercial wu-wei”. In due course, this alpine paradigm enabled the endogenous Libaniusian model to verify and reflect upon its theory of commercial society. Additionally, this third focus also demonstrates that the later development of Europe’s laissez-faire doctrine has to be seen as a Eurasian co-production – without importing China’s wu-wei, Europe’s pro-commercial ideology might never have matured.

A "space" created in psychoanalysis and Eastern thought: a discussion of holding environment, container, and wu-wei

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-122
Author(s):  
Li Hanning
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Holding Environment ◽  
True Self ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Psychoanalytic Therapy ◽  
Wu Wei ◽  
State Of Mind

In this article Winnicott, Bion, and Zhuangzi's three metaphorical concepts of psychological space are compared to understand the meaning of their respective use of space and unity, as well as the importance of the unity of space itself. This is carried out against the background of psychoanalysis and Eastern thought. This is not only a state that analysts need to be able to achieve in psychoanalytic therapy, but is also related to the quality of the mental state of each of us in our daily lives. An open and perceptive experience is responsible for the spontaneous presentation and for mental growth, and in Eastern thought, at its core is the wu-wei thought, defined as unconflicted personal harmony, inaction, or free-flowing spontaneity. Although psychoanalysis is a therapeutic method, it is not limited to this function. It is also a preparation for patients to approach their true self or "truth". Freud (1912e) described a way of approaching "an open mind, free from any presupposition" that could be achieved through analysis, and he promoted the development of mature interpersonal relations. Buddhist or Taoist practice, on the other hand, relies on correct breathing to calm oneself. Beyond all doubt, Winnicott, Bion, and the wise men of the East all knew that connecting with emotion or acquiring knowledge must be done in a calm state of mind.

scholarly journals L’effet de réel revisited: Barthes and the affective image

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-136
Author(s):  
Sirkka Knuuttila
Keyword(s):  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Wu Wei ◽  
Bodily Feelings ◽  
Reality Effect ◽  
Embodied Self ◽  
Zen Buddhist

This article addresses Barthes’s development from a structuralist semiotician towards an affectively responding reader in terms of ‘postrational’ subjectivity. In light of his whole oeuvre, Barthes anticipates the understanding of emotion as an integral part of cognition presented in contemporary social neuroscience. To illustrate Barthes’s growing awareness of the importance of this epistemological move, the article starts from his textual ‘reality effect’ as a critical vehicle of realist representation. It then shifts to his attempt at conceptualising an affective reading which resists the universalising idea of one ideologically determined signified. Barthes’s progress towards embracing the actual reader’s embodied self-feeling is prompted by two conceptual milestones: the obtuse meaning found in cinematic stills, and the experience of punctum felt in photos. In light of his lectures in the Collège de France, Barthes substitutes the Husserlian disembodied method of introspection with the Chinese wu-wei as a reading practice. As a result, his Zen-Buddhist concentration on bodily feelings elicited by visual/verbal images becomes a method capable of creating a fruitful link between language and wordless cognition. Finally, the article proposes an idea of the ‘embodied reality effect’ by reading affectively two similar scenes interpreted by the early and late Barthes himself.

Wu-Wei and the Decentering of the Subject in Lao-Zhuang

2006 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changchi Hao ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Wu Wei ◽  
The Subject

Wu Wei, Negativity, and Depression

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siroj Sorajjakool
Keyword(s):  
Wu Wei
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document