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A Contextualist Reconsideration of the “Happy Fish” Passage in the Zhuangzi and Its Implications for Relativism

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Abstract

The “happy fish” passage in the Zhuangzi 莊子 is often interpreted as endorsing some form of perspectivism which precludes objective claims of knowledge and displaces the significance of human perspectives. Relativism has gained particular currency in contemporary readings. However, this essay aims to show the limited explanatory power of such relativist positions, with focus on Chad Hansen’s “perspectival relativism” and Lea Cantor’s “species relativism.” I will also offer a new, “transitional contextualist” reading, which intends to demonstrate that Zhuangzi’s utterance is grounded in his epistemic context and that Huizi’s 惠子 disputation arises from his changing of the epistemic context, from one with quotidian “low standards” to one with “high-standards” skeptical demands. I further argue that when “wandering” (you 遊) is understood as a freedom from one’s partial perspective, it becomes clear how Zhuangzi analogizes a parallel with the fish’s “wandering” through a continuity between his “world” and that of the fish.

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Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to Professor Roger T. Ames for his feedback on an earlier version of this essay and to Professor Bernhard Fuehrer for his continuous encouragement and support. I would also like to thank Professor Yong Huang and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which have, I hope, greatly improved the essay. I am solely responsible, however, for any flaws and shortcomings this essay may have.

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  1. Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS, University of London, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK

    Alex T. Hitchens

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Hitchens, A.T. A Contextualist Reconsideration of the “Happy Fish” Passage in the Zhuangzi and Its Implications for Relativism. Dao 22, 577–603 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-023-09907-6

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