MIDTERM EXAM FOR PHIL-2420, “CHINESE METAPHYSICS”

Question 1 consists of 25% of the grade. Other questions are 15% each. Please type your answers.

1. Explain the philosophical meaning of the following paradoxical expressions: (25%)

Action by non-action

Learning by unlearning

The supreme virtue does not appear virtuous

2. I Ching is a book of divination. Yet it is also considered a source of Chinese philosophy. Explain how the two aspects are related.

3. Explain the concepts of yin and yang in I Ching, and how they apply to the Taoist way of life.

4. What kind of view of causation is entailed in the book of I Ching?

5. Explain how Chuang Tzu’s theory about everything being equal is also his way of liberating for human life.

6. Explain how Chuang Tzu’s skepticism differs from his Western counterparts, such as Descartes.