Abstract for the Kant in Asia
International Conference
at Hong Kong Baptist University
20-23 May 2009
Eric Nelson, “The Human, the Natural, and the Sublime in
Kant and the Zhuangzi”
Naturalistic
accounts of early Daoism and post-humanist interpretations of the uncanny
sublime suggest that the everyday personal life of the individual is
interrupted and dismantled by overwhelming impersonal powers that reveal the “human”
to be a false construction and the world to be an aesthetic, natural, or
mystical play of forces. I argue for a third option between anthropocentric
humanism and impersonal naturalism by rereading the Zhuangzi in light
of Kant's Critique of Judgment. Kant's sublime risks destroying the
person while disclosing the possibility of reaffirming the dignity of the
individual in relation to the natural world. The terror of the sublime is
equally the possibility of renewed individuation in relation to the forces of
nature. Contrary to Xunzi's criticism that Zhuangzi forgot the human in
prioritizing nature (tian), I argue that the Daoist sage (zhenren)
is not absorbed in the dao, much less shattered by its power and
sublimity, but is perfected or individuated (zhen) in free and easy
wandering in relation to it and the myriad things (wanwu).