Zhuangzi And That Bloody Butterfly

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Philosophy Now
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Zhuangzi And That Bloody Butterfly

Post by Philosophy Now »

Raymond Tallis dreams up a flight of philosophical fancy.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/76/Zhuangzi_And_That_Bloody_Butterfly
Butterfly
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Re: Zhuangzi And That Bloody Butterfly

Post by Butterfly »

I don't know why I would write an article like this, but I am sure I had my reasons.

Of course, I am not the person who wrote this essay, but what I just wrote illustrates a suitable response to the complaint that we implicitly reject Zhuangzi's argument when we attribute it to him. This rejection must be founded precisely on the basis that our reality is not a dream, that our collective experience is not imagined, which is precisely what Zhuangzi undermines with his thought experiment. The fact that history records Zhuangzi as having said these words, and not some butterfly, is of no importance: it merely places each of us in his place. If we are butterflies dreaming of being human, we can just as well dream that there existed a philosopher named Zhuangzi who thought he was a butterfly, or another philosopher who wrote an article arguing against this point.
owl of Minerva
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Re: Zhuangzi And That Bloody Butterfly

Post by owl of Minerva »

The butterfly thought experiment is like a koan which Masters used to jolt the minds of their pupils out of an unquestioning acceptance of their perceptions of reality. It is similar to 'what is the sound of one hand clapping' which on the face of it appears absurd. The pupils were to reflect on this until they reached satori; a perception of reality that transcended duality. Since it was understood that duality is derivative from an essential unity, what today would be referred to as a unifying theory of everything.
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