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physics515 t1_ixtkeox wrote

Reply to comment by Dawnofdusk in In classical Chinese philosophy, all actions are collective by CytheYounger

It's interesting this is linked to collectivism, because the same principle is laid out in the older founding liberal texts such as Human Action. Which states that any action is an expression of value thus by taking an action you are inherently expressing value to others. This revelation can be said to be the underpinnings of all western individualistic philosophies.

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Dawnofdusk t1_ixtyg4g wrote

Interesting I had not heard of that before. In my opinion, the underpinning of Western individualistic philosophies seems more like mind-over-matter/mind body dualism described by René Descartes. In this case the metaphysics is very different from that of Chinese thought, or at least Daoism in particular, if one thinks for example of the story where "Zhuangzi dreamt of being a butterfly. Or was it that the butterfly dreamt of being Zhuangzi?"

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