A Global Dao: Diagnoses and Prescriptions for Artificial Reductive Binaries in the West and the East
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A Global Dao: Diagnoses and Prescriptions for Artificial Reductive Binaries in The West and The East by Aaron Amon Greene Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, 2017 Associate of Arts, South Puget Sound Community College, 2015; Associate of Applied Sciences (Business Administration), S.P.S.C.C., 2015 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Humanities in the Simon Fraser University /Department of Humanities Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © [Aaron Amon Greene] 2020 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY [2020] Approval Name: Aaron Amon Greene Degree: Master of Arts Title: A Global Dao: Diagnoses and Prescriptions for Artificial Reductive Binaries in The West and The East Examining Committee: Chair: David Mirhady Professor Paul Crowe Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Luke Clossey Supervisor Associate Professor Stephen Duguid Internal Examiner Professor Emeritus Date Defended/Approved: August 21, 2020 ii Abstract The arbiters of the subject of Daoism have assumed authority to determine what does or does not merit inclusion through a few select means; either through a circumscribed scholastic lens or via cultural/religious authority typically predicated on established traditions. This thesis attempts to explain the ways in which both approaches tend to minimize relevant or qualifying contributions to a subject of Religious Studies such as Daoism. Deconstructing these reductive approaches requires first exploring them on their own terms, establishing how they narrow the aperture of consideration, and demonstrating their highly limited applicability in forming a more comprehensive understanding. Both the presuppositional tendencies of essentialism in Western academia and traditionalism in Eastern mores serve to create false binaries that can exclude many potential contributors to ongoing discourses. A tool borrowed from business models (the value-added proposition) is offered as a “perceived-value-added” model. It is intended to reopen that aperture, allowing for the inclusion of many otherwise disregarded contributors to ever-expanding world religions. This model allows for the intrinsic as well as extrinsic evaluations of a thought-tradition like Daoism (it only needs to establish the position of the perceiver). The precedence for importing models from outside the field of Religious Studies is well established; offering another is not intended as an entire usurpation of existent ones. The model can be applied alongside other Religious Studies approaches, but its applicability to a thought-tradition like Daoism, which has so permeated the substratum of Eastern cultures, shall become more evident throughout. What was treated once as the disingenuous “Dao of Western imagination” can, with this prescription, now be evaluated on an equal footing with the traditions from which it arose. Keywords (4-6): Daoism, Religious Studies, Essentialism, Traditionalism, Philosophy iii Dedication Dedicated to you the reader. By your engagement with this writing, its existence continues. I deeply appreciate your setting foot on this particular path. iv Acknowledgements A single page to express my gratitude is woefully insufficient. To acknowledge everyone who has been instrumental in the processes culminating in this thesis is a task of a lifetime. I must thank my editors Austin D Colburn of the University of Puget Sound and Lucas Waggnor of University of Washington for cleaning up after me. But if I must to single out one person, it would need to be my daughter, Natalia. The continuing lessons of parenthood: patience, persistence, and perseverance were all necessary to shape me into a person capable of seeing this process through. Her profound influence in my life has done more to mold me than any lessons lifted from a page. Dr. Fareed Zakaria once said, “You will never know how much your parents love you, until you have children of your own.” To this I would add, you can never know how much you changed your predecessors, until your progeny has worked the same magic of change upon you. Thank you for forever changing me Tal-tal. v Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................. viii List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................... ix Preface/Executive Summary/Image .................................................................................. x Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. Not Rotting in the State of Denmark ............................................................... 1 1.1.2. Terms and Scope ............................................................................................ 2 Chapter 2. A Passion for Reduction ........................................................................... 7 2.1.1. A Narrow Pass ................................................................................................ 7 2.1.2. Biological Basis of Binary Reduction .............................................................. 8 2.1.3. The Scientific-Philosophy of Reducibility for Unification ................................. 9 2.1.4. Eastern and Western Reductive Dehumanizing ........................................... 11 2.1.5. Daoists’ Modern Pressures ........................................................................... 15 2.1.6. Frameworks for Religious Studies ................................................................ 19 Chapter 3. The Western thought-tradition ............................................................... 22 3.1.1. Thinking in the West ..................................................................................... 22 3.1.2. Pre-Socratic Greece ..................................................................................... 23 3.1.3. The Fathers of Western Thought .................................................................. 25 3.1.4. Rome Franchising the Essentials ................................................................. 27 3.1.5. Christendom .................................................................................................. 30 3.1.6. Dawning of Enlightenment ............................................................................ 32 3.1.7. The Existential Way ...................................................................................... 34 Chapter 4. The Eastern thought-tradition ................................................................ 39 4.1.1. Deep Roots ................................................................................................... 39 4.1.2. Kingdoms become Dynasties and One Hundred Schools Bloom ................. 41 4.1.3. Establishing Traditions .................................................................................. 44 4.1.4. A Way Things Never Were ........................................................................... 47 4.1.5. The Return of the Jinshi ................................................................................ 50 4.1.6. Invading Pathogens ...................................................................................... 53 4.1.7. Gold-medal Traditions ................................................................................... 56 Chapter 5. The hermeneutic of the perceived-value-added (PVA) model ............ 58 5.1.1. The Way Cannot be Told .............................................................................. 58 5.1.2. Practical Considerations ............................................................................... 60 vi 5.1.3. Polishing the PVA Lens ................................................................................ 61 5.1.4. The Business and Logic of Values ................................................................ 62 5.1.5. Focusing Through the PVA ........................................................................... 67 5.1.6. Ideas on the Move ........................................................................................ 69 Chapter 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 73 References ..................................................................................................................... 76 vii List of Figures Figure 1 Raphael Sanzio's Schools of Athens commissioned by Pope Julius II ............ 31 Figure 2 Le Petit Journal January 16th 1898 “En Chine Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs” English: “China -- the cake of kings and... of emperors” ..... 52 viii List of Acronyms CCP Chinese Communist Party CDA Chinese Daoist Association GMD Guomindang GUT Grand Unification Theory ISIS Islamic State of Iraq and Syria PEM Principle