Abstract:

The aim of this talk is philosophically evaluating the interpretations of Zhuangzi’s notions of 忘 wang and 坐忘 zuowang. By critically examining the limitations of the mystical interpretation and the neurophysiological interpretation, I find that the mystical interpretation refuses to explain wang and zuowang, and the neurophysiological interpretation fails to address the role of the situated environment in wang and zuowang. Then I propose a new interpretation, an enactivist interpretation. This interpretation not only justifies that we could cognize wang and zuowang in terms of embodied cognition, but it also explicates that the embodied agent who practices  wang and zuowang is a functioning subjectivity situated within his environment.

Bio:

Prior to joining the University of Macau as Postdoctoral Fellow of Philosophy and Religious Studies in 2019, Tang had been an assistant lecturer at CUHK, where he earned his PhD. He had taught in several Hong Kong and Macau Universities. Tang’s main research interests lie in Philosophy of Memory and Forgetting, Comparative Philosophy and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. He has published more than ten articles on phenomenology, hermeneutics, philosophy of forgiveness, Chinese philosophy in a number of philosophy journals and anthologies. Recently, comparative philosophy constitutes his main research interest.