TREATING A BIRD AS A BIRD: ANIMAL ETHICS AND THE LIMITS OF INTERVENTION IN THE ZHUANGZI

Ivana  Buljan

doi:10.21618/fil2633051b

Autori

Ivana Buljan University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Asian Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21618/fil2633051b

Ključne reči:

Čuang Ce, etika životinja, antropocentrizam, nedjelovanje, epistemička poniznost, epistemička uzdržanost, kosmocentrizam

Apstrakt

Iako se ne-ljudske životinje često pojavljuju u premodernom kineskom tekstu Čuang Ce, one se najčešće tumače alegorijski, što njihov etički značaj ostavlja nedovoljno istraženim. Ovaj rad napušta isključivo metaforička čitanja i pristupa narativima o životinjama doslovno, s ciljem rekonstrukcije okvira etike životinja u Čuang Ceu. Tvrdim da je njegov pristup zasnovan na epistemičkoj poniznosti i nedjelovanju, koje proizlaze iz kosmocentrične ontologije i perspektivne epistemologije. Za razliku od savremenih, pretežno antropocentričnih ili utilitarnih okvira, Čuang Ce postavlja pitanje da li ljudi uopšte epistemički imaju pravo da intervenišu. Argument se razvija preko tri povezana koraka: ontološki, koji smješta sva bića u continuum qi-ja i dovodi u pitanje pretpostavke o ljudskoj izuzetnosti; epistemološki, koji naglašava parcijalnu i situacionu prirodu ljudskog znanja; te etički, koji iz toga izvodi orijentaciju ka nedjelovanju i uzdržanoj intervenciji. Analiza narativa o životinjama, kao što su Borbeni pijetao, Alegorija o morskoj ptici i Bo Leovi konji, pokazuje da čak i dobronamjerna intervencija može narušiti specifične oblike razvoja, pri čemu etička šteta proizlazi iz epistemičke pogrešne procjene, a ne iz zlobe. Udaljavajući se od antropocentričnih okvira i naglašavajući kosmocentrične i relacione dimenzije etike, Čuang Ce nudi model etičkog angažovanja zasnovan na pažljivom posmatranju, uzdržanosti i priznavanju ne-ljudske autonomije.

Reference

Anderson, E. N. & Raphals, L. (2006) Daoism and Animals. In: Waldau, P. & K. Patton (eds.) A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press, 275–90. JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wald13642.26. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.

Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, Duke University Press.

Callicott, J. B. (1984) Non-anthropocentric value theory. Environmental Ethics, 6(4), 299–310.

Connolly, T. (2011) Perspectivism as a way of knowing in the Zhuangzi. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy, 10(4), 487–505.

D’Ambrosio, P. J. (2022) Non-humans in the Zhuangzi: Animalism and antianthropocentrism. Asian Philosophy, 32(1), 1–16.

Goh, I. (2011) Chuang Tzu’s becoming animal. Philosophy East and West, 61(1), 110–133.

Huang, Y. (2022) Animals in the Zhuangzi: Allegory and moral instruction. Dao, 21(3), 473–490.

Jia, M. (2025) Research on Zhuangzi’s Philosophy of Animal Ethics. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Electronic Conference on Animals, 12–14 March 2025, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland.

Kemmerer, L.. (2009) The Great Unity: Daoism, Nonhuman Animals, and Human Ethics. Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 7(2), 63–83.

Komjathy, L. (n.d.) Animals and Daoism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://explore.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/daoism-and-animals

Lau, D.C., Wah Ho Che, Ching Chen Fong (eds.). (2000) A Concordance to the Zhuangzi (莊子逐字索引) Hong Kong, Commercial Press.

Lynn, R. J. (2019) Birds and beasts in the Zhuangzi, fables interpreted by Guo Xiang and Cheng Xuanying. Religions, 10, 445. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10070445

Manson, N. C. (2012) Epistemic restraint and the vice of curiosity. Philosophy, 87(2), 239–259. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819112000046

McFadden, K., Leary, S., & Hessler, K. (2019) Animal Welfare Act: Excluded animals. Animal Law Review, 25, 202–223.

Meijer, E. (2024) A Daoist-inspired approach to multispecies relations. Environmental Philosophy,21 (2), 199–221.

Moeller, H. G. (2023) Kill stories: A critical narrative genre in the Zhuangzi. Dao, 22, 397–412.

Nelson, R. S. (2021) Daoism and environmental philosophy: Nourishing life. London, Routledge.

Nylan, M. (2019) Humans as Animals and Things in Pre-Buddhist China. Religions, 10(6), 360.

Özbey, S. N. (2024) Different Beasts: Humans and Animals in Spinoza and the Zhuangzi. New York, online edn, Oxford Academic, 14 Dec. 2023. https://doi.org/,accessed 14 Feb. 2026

Parkes, G. (2013) Zhuangzi and Nietzsche on the human and nature. Environmental Philosophy, 10(1), 1–24.

Peterson, A. L. (2013) Being animal: Beasts and boundaries in nature ethics. New York: Columbia University Press.

Singh, D. (2023) Zhuangzi’s epistemic perspectivism: Humility and open mindedness as corrective virtues. Asian Journal of Philosophy, 2(1), 1–18.

Sterckx, R. (2002) The animal and the human in early Chinese thought. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Sturgeon, D. (n.d.) Zhuangzi, perspectives, and greater knowledge. University of Hong Kong repository. https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/191845/1/content.pdf

Tan, C. (2023) A Daoist interpretation of perspective-taking. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 44(3), 349–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2022.2131091

Valmisa, M. (2021) Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.

Wang, Robin R. (2026) Zhuangzi’s Jie Xin 解心 (Untangling the Heartmind) and the Wisdom of Biomimicry: An Innovative Approach to Humanity, Nature, and Technology for the 21st Century. Asian Studies 14 (1), 39—63. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2026.14.1.39-63.

Watson, B. (2013) The Complete Works of Zhuangzi (B. Watson, Trans.). New York, Columbia University Press.

Wolfe, C. (2012) Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Wong, S. T. (2023) Zhuangzi and perspectival humility. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 55(2), 169–181.