êthos mystéthikos - Chapter 22 (From the work in progress: The Poetized Critique) By M. Santos

 

22 ON THE DENIAL OF NEGATIVITY IN LIFE AND 'INATION'

In that 2016 text, we suggested the formulation 'the tao of the will', with this we present a brief comparative study, on the negation of the will in metaphysical pessimism and the wú wéi, that capital notion of ancient Chinese thought, from which the paradoxical expression wéi wúwéi, which we can translate as acting through exemption, that is, the multiverse itself generates endless things, but it does so without any effort, and this because it follows the natural law, as mysterious as compassion in humanity.

It was based on this notion of wúwéi that elaborations of Chinese thought were immortalized in world culture, mainly by Laozi, who is credited with the authorship of sentences such as: The wise human being / Desire not to desire / Does not value costly goods Learns not to learn / It runs where men pass / Helping the nature of the ten-thousand-things / That without daring to act.

Much is already known about the relationship between metaphysical pessimism and oriental thought, and, commonly, these influences have been spoken of, many of them coming from Buddhist thought and the writings of the culture linked to Vedanta. However, we will only address here fragments of works and the thoughts of authors that are not even dealt with in detail in any work by Schopenhauer, the philosopher from Frankfurt.

We will therefore try to present some elements of Taoist writings, those that present us with strong kinship and echo in important concepts of the philosophy of metaphysical pessimism. We will do this aiming, however, not to extrapolate the limits of our general intention, which is to present mystéthic and metaquantic as the most important neologisms highlighted in this work. Therefore, with our brief mystethized speech, you can contribute to a relevant understanding of the whole, about the imbricated relationship of intuition with reason and these in the realization of the works of creative geniuses, assumed here as the works of love.

It was the dialogical-dialectical-epistemic procedure, characterized in the step we carried out, namely, the return of the metaphysics of ethics to the metaphysics of the beautiful, which enabled us to propose mystéthiko knowledge as a new metaphysical paradigm and as the herald of future metaquantics. .

But, even before dealing with Taoism, it is worth alluding to the teaching of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, in chapter 8:2, which says: The law of the Spirit of Life, through Christ, freed mankind from the law of sin and of death. But it is only in the mystéthikos sense that we can understand this, namely, that the human principle of compassion is based on love that is always freeing and giving. Now, this is the same natural law of the dao, therefore of the Spirit. This same law of love, therefore, functions as the rhythmic and balanced interchange between all donations and redistributions verified in love in action, that is, in the works of creative geniuses.

A timely example as a symbol of this love can be the double wave of light (superimposed in harmonic octaves, like a double of infinity symbols), representing what gives and what repays equally and rhythmically, and where love is, at the same time, , the field and the expanding wave, or rather, it is the core of Cosmic Energy itself, from which everything comes, thrives and expands generously.

Now, still visualizing this lemniscate of octave light, consider first that, in China, there is a current knowledge from the most remote times in the teaching of the opposition between YIN and YANG, precisely because all things in the world are the object of a single and Energy itself, therefore identical according to their essence, and not only must there be that undeniable analogy between them, but also in every less perfect thing there must already be shown the trace, the allusion, the device of the most perfect things. However, since all these forms belong only to the world as representation, it is even possible to assume that even in the most universal forms of representation, in the very frameworks of the phenomenal world, therefore in space and time, one can find and demonstrate the fundamental type, the indication, the device of everything that fills the forms. It seems that it was an obscure notion of this that gave rise to Kabbalah and the entire mathematical philosophy of the Pythagoreans, as well as the Chinese philosophy of the I-Ching.

When Schopenhauer alluded to elements of ancient Chinese wisdom, he aimed to clarify his most cherished concept, that of Will. But before we go any further, we must make an accurate correction, that is, the aforementioned opposition between YIN and YANG should never be taken as a type of dualistic Manichaeism. In short, in Chinese culture it is about complementary opposites and not a need to choose this or that. As a simple example, it is enough to mention the case of electric energy, which is so useful to us when we use it correctly, that is, when the negative and positive poles are properly arranged and functional.

 The book of the I Ching is also known as the Book of Changes, and is one of the five classic and fundamental books of Confucianism. Since time immemorial it has been, without a doubt, the main oracle and the first spiritual resource of the Asian peoples. Furthermore, even today there has been a growing interest in the I Ching in Europe and America, thanks to its mysterious potential to provide very detailed prognoses for those who wish to study them carefully.

The I Ching does not make a true prediction of the future, but it provides us with a clear vision of the present and offers indications on how to face the current moment we are experiencing. It goes far beyond the question that was asked, laying bare the deepest truths of the nature of our unconscious. Of course, by consulting the I Ching, (also spelled 易經. Yi Jing) one obtains the prediction of a certain event as well, but this will always depend on our intention and purpose.

The principle of duality is prefigured in the Taoist taijitu diagram, formed by the complementary junction of the two fundamental principles or forces, which make up the dynamic balance of the movement and mutations of the world, according to the course or DAO. Taijitu is the well-known symbol that represents the integration of Yin and Yang, where Yin is the passive, nocturnal, dark, cold, feminine principle; and Yang is the active principle; daytime, bright, hot, masculine.

The concept of Will is something difficult to fully conceive, even after years of studying Schopenhauer's work. However, in the Chinese tradition, the fruition of the dao is an ineffable and inexpressible contemplative experience as well.

Returning to the German philosophy in question, similarly to what happens with the notion of holiness and virtue, the notion of sage is widely used in the final section of Schopenhauer's magnum opus; henceforth we will confront it with some of the most significant fragments possible, gleaned from some central texts of ancient Chinese thought. In this way, we can relate the limitation of language to express dao, with the same limitation, already attributed here to Energy as a thing in itself, in the sense that both notions are impassive to the onslaughts of the principle of reason in pursuit as well.

In the 4th century BC, Zhuangzi proposed a way of thinking, in which he considered a presentation of the limitation of understanding and language. This was with regard to the inability of rational discourse to express what is real and unequivocal, namely, the ineffable dao, the 'groundless' foundation of all things.

This Chinese thinker was busy opposing the Confucian way of seeking wisdom for the well-being of the people and for the government of the nation, whose touchstone is the famous Confucius formula: What you know is knowing that you know; what you don't know is knowing that you don't know. To learn more about the teachings of Confucius, it is enough to read a good translation of the work The Analects, in the best edition that the student can find.

For Zhuangzi (also spelled Zhuang Tse), the simple determination to learn and to communicate the truth of the natural course of the world is already the first indication of failure and incompetence of those who do not follow the dao, that is, those who do not listen to their mysterious music and does not know the power of the ear, the heart and its own essential energy, the qi, foundation of all perceptions and where they all converge, according to this natural and mysterious course of things in the world.

Today, the Chinese population is almost one and a half billion people, and the doctrines of Zhuangzi, Confucius, and Laozi still remained in practice, even after so long, and despite the harshest sacrifices required of this people, throughout their history. long history of countless internal conflicts.

Therefore, it can be concluded that: the so popular wisdom of the dao cannot come from some mere arbitrarily invented fantasy, and must have its basis in the essence of humanity, to what we are calling the Idea of ​​Humanity, in accordance with the mysthesis that we are opening here too.

But despite all this, we are not sufficiently surprised by the 'coincidence' that we find, when reading about the life of the Rabbi of Galilee and comparing it with that of a Chinese sapiential master, as in the case of Zhuangzi, Confucius and even Laozi. Despite their fundamentally different dogmas, customs and regions, still their aspiration and inner life is absolutely the same, as are their non-negotiable precepts.

The end of the metaphysics of ethics suggests to us virtue and holiness, given through a metanoia, that is, a radical change in the human mind, also called rebirth. However, this is something that can never be achieved by learning some ethics, because all ethics is based on abstract knowledge, that is, on what does not go beyond the principium individuationis. Thus, only intuitive knowledge is important in the rulership of the sage. Such knowledge is attained as if by a flash of divine grace, using a Christian expression here, but only by way of a quick illustration.

We have also seen that, like the artist, the sage possesses that immediate knowledge of the world. Now, this perfection achieved by the sage ends up dispensing with any kind of dogmatics and liturgy. In this way, either a prayer made in a public square, a penance or the strict observance of rites and cults are worthless to one who has intuited the essence of human life and the world, namely, the Idea of ​​Humanity.

Johannes Tauler was a 14th century Christian theologian, who told us about complete poverty to which one should prefer, and which consists in the total renunciation of everything that is likely to provide comfort or self-interested enjoyment. Evidently because all this provides new 'feeding' to the negativity of the individualistic will in life, whose complete mortification is decisive for the realization of the works of love.

Tauler's sermons are considered among the masterpieces of German-language literature. Although they are not as emotional as the works of Henrique de Suso, nor as speculative as those of his teacher, Master Eckhart, however, they are intensely practical discourses, which satisfactorily address the profound problems of moral and spiritual life.

Now, returning to Zhuangzi, the aforementioned Chinese thinker suggested that after attesting to the relativity of language, the enlightened man should conclude that this artifice of enlightenment should not be used, in order to try to capture dao, that is, the true meaning and foundation. of the world is natural law and it cannot be owned by any human being in question.

Zhuangzi is very fond of the continuous dialogue or the paradoxical anecdote that ends up in a touch of nonsense destined to provoke a start, or even a leap towards a truth that is not of common logic – a procedure reused much later, by Zen Buddhism.

Since the full wisdom of Heaven-Earth is contained in the unspeakable dao, in chapter 56 of the Dao De Jing, we can see a clear delimitation of the power of speech, where the speaker presupposes his own ignorance, since, the perfect human being, the wise, is the one who is silent, because he understands the importance of acting by forgetting, in relation to everything that is said.

In one passage, Zhuangzi, when clarifying the reason for the secondary value of the word, told us:

The raison d'être of the pot is in the fish, once you catch the fish, you forget about the pot.

The raison d'être of the trap is in the hare; once the hare is caught, the trap is forgotten.

The raison d'être of words is in the sense; once the meaning is captured, the words are forgotten.

Where shall I find the one who knows how to forget words, so that I can say two words to him?

And in the same vein, Zhuangzi added:

Since things exist, discourse can dominate them, knowledge can give a global view of them, this is the supreme point of the world of things. But he who contemplates the dao does not pursue them to the point where they disappear, he does not go back to the point where they have their beginning: this point is the point where the discussion must stop.

What we have just read reminds us a lot of the famous proposition of Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian thinker greatly influenced by Schopenhauer's philosophy, and who suggested that: what one cannot speak of, one must remain silent.

Now, in the so-called cultural pessimism of Wittgenstein, in the face of the progress of western technoscientific civilization in the first half of the 20th century, this philosophical position of deep and intense activity of thought was assumed, regarding the problems of language.

But this strong opposition to the scientistic ideology of the second Wittgenstein, consolidated itself as a type of therapy for the problems of the crisis of technological civilization. Thus, once the use is finished, Wittgenstein suggests discarding the “ladder”, that is, it is about dispensing with the use of language in facing the problems of the technocratic contemporary world, once its capacity is exhausted. This is because language changes from time to time, so it is never something that can be definitively taken for granted. Now, if there are things that are not accessible to language, then in that case it is better to keep silent.

As for remaining silent, consider that the Chinese term shen designates a type of knowledge that occurs through direct spiritual fruition, and that occurs at the limit of the power of sensory knowledge. It is where the spirit 'desires' freely, flowing in the natural course of things, that is, in the natural guiding lines, named by the term li.

In this sense, we must consider the significant similarity of the Taoist sage to that presented in German metaphysical pessimism. At least, the subjects dealt with are practically identical, as we will be able to see better below, still according to the teachings of Zhuangzi:

When the sage attains stillness, he does not attain it by saying to himself that stillness is good; His stillness comes from the fact that none of a thousand things trouble his heart. When the water is calm, we can clearly see the slightest hair or eyebrow in it; it is perfectly flat, like the carpenter's level, and the best craftsman will take it as the norm. If even the water is clear when it is calm, how much more to the stillness of essential spirit (jingshen), the heart of the sage, reflection of Heaven-Earth, mirror of a thousand things!

There is no fixed point in it. Things, as they take shape, manifest themselves. In movement, he is like water. In stillness, like the mirror. In response, as the echo.

Let us also remember the countless times when Shopenhauer also used the metaphor of the mirror to refer to nature as a mirror of Cosmic Energy.

Now, mainly by tracing a relationship with the cosmic eye of mysticism and with that pure intuition of the world, it is already discussed here, all this serves as an example and to give more meaning to our brief comparative examination.

It may seem necessary to operate a relationship such as the one in this chapter, about distant Chinese literature and elements of Germanic and even European philosophy in general. However, the same notion of energy also in the Chinese notion of human being can opt for the negation or affirmation of Negativity in life, that is, opting for individualistic works or works of love, for the limpid knowledge and reflection of itself.

The term zhenren, which appears in Zhuangzi's writings, is what designates the Sage, that is, the authentic and true human being, the one who remains merged with the natural course of things, without, however, being 'reified'. This type of sage is Earth and is also Heaven.

Through this 'divine spiritual potency' (shen), the true human being merges with the dao, in the experience described as the 'journey of the spirit' (shenyou), the mystical and ecstatic flight, which leaves the body 'as a clod of earth' or as 'dry wood', and the heart as 'faded ash'.

Similar to what happens in the metaphysics of ethics, detachment from the things of the world is also a recurring theme of Taoist thought, where the sage reveals himself as a mirror that reflects the things of the world, but without ever clinging to them nor desiring what he wants. wants it to be for himself, for he knows that all things fill and empty, grow and decline, in an endless cycle, and that nothing in the world is properly good or bad, weak or strong, but rather, all opposites are complementary in yin-yang, as the aforementioned symbology of the taijitu diagram well expresses. (Check glossary)

Now, just by way of opportune comparison, let us see at least one among the countless examples of passages in this regard, only in the metaphysics of the beautiful, when it is said that: it is a Germanic way of speaking full of meaning, that we get lost by complete in an object, that is, we lose sight of precisely the individual himself, his own will; the disposition becomes purely objective: all consciousness is still only the clear mirror of the offered object, which is the medium through which it enters the world as representation. We know about ourselves only insofar as we know about the object. We still know, for a moment, that something is intuited here, we no longer know who intuits it: for the entire consciousness is completely filled and taken by a single intuitive image.

Therefore, as we said, the sage is the one who maintains a relationship with the world, objectifying it, but without, however, objectifying himself. In this, he withdraws from the world, even leaving it with perfect clairvoyance without needing, however, to fight to annul it, since things are as they are in their course in the dao, and this cannot be definitively annulled. .

This idea of ​​the sage as a mirror of things is also not strange to Buddhism. However, this 'religion' calls for a total departure from the material and evil world, that of the illusion of Maya, a figure also used in metaphysical pessimism to illustrate the yoke of ignorance, which human beings carry under the despotism of the Will during their suffering life.

This exemption from the world, this radical and indispensable departure must lead to nirvana, the buddha-state in which the sage dissolves in absolute Brahman. This refers to the impersonal and omnipresent aspect of the Absolute, because it is in Brahmam that everything originates and to which everything must return.

That which pervades all and which is everywhere, although being neutral and without attributes, being the omniscient natural course, is like the being empty of the things of the world, especially of the artificial world wrought by the knowledge and technique of ignorant individuals regarding to the Cosmic Energy that constitutes them.

Even in the thinking of dao contemplators, an emptying of the world is also suggested, but this does not imply an imperative of radical denial of everything, contrary to what Buddhist dogmatics in general prays.

In this way, the true human being, through contemplation, harmonizes himself in his center and, in this fusion with his purified mind, overcomes the impermanence and inconstancy of worldly things, and this includes human suffering itself, from his birth, his pain, decay and death.

Thus, the sage (mysthetically speaking, any and all creative geniuses and practitioners of the works of love) does not face the decisive problems of the ordinary world only as relative processes in the game of the natural course of things, but never in an absolute character. In fact, the only consideration of an absolute character would be the necessary contemplation of the dao, the unspeakable that can only be alluded to through the paradoxical path of abandoning the discourse itself, because it is like the void that is never filled, like the original “nothing”.

Birth, growth, decline, and death are all spontaneous, natural processes that depend on Heaven. This is our 'celestial destiny', which, however, is the most difficult to accept because we always want to decide, always choose. In short, the way and reason for being of the common human is to want.

But, Zhuangzi also proposed that we go to a totally different level, abruptly opening a perspective in depth, where one perceives, at once, what can be considered an enlightenment in infinity, in the unfathomable dao that absorbs the mind like a whirlwind in a regression bottomless. Birth, growth, decline and death: all these spontaneous and natural processes that depend on Heaven. This is our 'celestial destiny' which, however, is the most difficult to accept because we always want to decide, always choose; because our way and our reason for being in common sense is to want. That's why

Here we can clearly perceive the importance of overcoming want and desire, returning to this theme that, together with the idea of ​​the sage, now serves us as a link between the metaphysics of ethics and the thought of the ancient Chinese sages, in this brief study of ours. comparative.

Therefore, but considering now the Dao De Jing, we highlight, with Laozi, the importance, in the Chinese civilization of his time, of undertaking a return to the natural paradise. In this sense, the divine human being appears as the prototype of the one who follows the natural course of Heaven-Earth, and to this perfect human being everything that happens happens in a harmonious way. He acts without acting and performs the work that remains fruitful and perpetuates itself, because he does not cling to it, just as he does not cling to anything, because he is 'fused' in the dao.

Now, just in passing and comparing a little with Greek academic philosophy, we will see that, the one originating from the Greeks, the arkhe can be associated with the verbal notion of thaumátzein, the wonder and astonishment of the sage. Thus, it was Aristotle who reaffirmed in his Metaphysics 982, b13 what Plato, already in Theaetetus 155 d, had proposed. Thus, it is undeniable that admiration is the true characteristic of the sage.

Now, so far we have been able to understand that the characteristics of the wise human being of metaphysical pessimism are essentially the same, in what was already reflected before, in the period immediately after the 'warring kingdoms', about 2,400 years ago in China.

We also know that in that same period, only in classical Greece, numerous considerations about the divine human being were coined, already under the seal of philosophy and no longer of mythology. However, they will not be addressed here only because they are not essential to the definitive scope of this work.

Before concluding this chapter, and considering the fleeting character of the notion of 'salvation', that is, of the freedom that knowledge through aesthetic contemplation proposes, contrasting it with the supposedly more lasting character of it, that one, given by the sage's experience of beatitude ; We must emphasize that, at the end of his metaphysics of the beautiful, Schopenhauer explained the following: For the artist, it is still not a question of leaving life, but only an occasional consolation in the midst of it; until his increased strength, finally tired of the game, turns to seriousness. As a symbol of this transition, Saint Cecilia by Raphael can be considered.

As can be seen, for Schopenhauer, the facial expression in Rafael Sanzio's Ecstasy of Santa Cecília represents the 'serious', since, in the metaphysics of the beautiful, the artist was taken as someone who would not reach a 'serious' liberation, and that about the question of freedom taken by the wise man, that is, of the one who, in theory, is saved more 'lastingly', from the tedious game of desire and satisfaction that locks humanity in the prison of suffering, in the valley of tears mundane, from which the esthetic genius would not free himself; if not playful and 'momentarily'.

It should also be noted that the German philosopher has no other resource than the indelible references of the metaphysics of beauty, even to resolve such a decisive question in his metaphysics of ethics. In this way, we reaffirm that we have consciously made the step back from the metaphysics of ethics to the metaphysics of the beautiful. Something that the pessimistic philosopher, if he did, apparently didn't realize, and not even the learned commentators of his work have done it, at least until now. In short, it is enough to realize that the overcoming of the principium individuationis cannot occur in the presence of any chronological appeal but in the nunc stans. Now, by establishing this in the metaphysics of the beautiful, it becomes unfeasible to suggest that something more serious than this could occur later, that is, within the scope of the lasting bliss of the wise, as suggested in the metaphysics of ethics.

Even because, still regarding the behavior of the sage, Shopenhauer understood that by the first one would have expressed itself abstractly and purified of every mythical element, the intimate essence of holiness, of self-abnegation, of the mortification of one's own will, of asceticism as the negation of the will of life that enters the scene after the finished knowledge of its essence has become the quieting of all willing. On the other hand, this was immediately known and expressed in acts by all the sages and ascetics who, despite the same intimate knowledge nevertheless used a very different language, according to the dogmas once absorbed in their reason, and due to which an Indian sage  or Christian or Lamaist has to give a very different account of his actions, which is however irrelevant in reference to the thing itself. A sage may be convinced of the most absurd superstitions, or, on the contrary, be a philosopher; he is indifferent. Only his conduct proves him to be wise. For it alone, in moral terms, proceeds not from abstract knowledge, but from immediate knowledge of the world and its essence, intuitively apprehended and expressed by him in dogmas only to satisfy his rational faculty.

Let us emphasize that, if in fact, only his conduct proves him to be wise. For only it, in moral terms, comes not from abstract knowledge, but from immediate knowledge of the world and its essence, on the other hand, the artist's moral conduct should not discredit him as wise, since the artist also intuited when immediate knowledge of the world and its essence. Now, without such knowledge, no one could free himself from the pains of the world. At this point, we must definitely emphasize that the overcoming of the principium individuationis cannot take place in the presence of any chronological appeal but in the nunc stans. Therefore, the artist and the sage are equal in overcoming the principium individuationis and in the perception of the nunc stans. Unless we accept that, as a phenomenon, the sage would pass to a level inaccessible to the artist. However, in this way, the problem would return, since in both cases it was about an immediate knowledge in the suspension of time, space and causality. Therefore, this alone would be enough to dismantle some supposed primacy of the sage over the genius artist.

As can be seen, in a very similar way to what happens in the metaphysics of ethics, the world desired by the sage of the dao is the one that harmonizes in the absence of desires and non-action (wúwéi). And, the main difference would be in the conception of the world, where, on the one hand, for the dao thinkers, the cycles of the world are natural and relative, in terms of good and evil; of good and bad, of suffering or relief. On the other hand, in metaphysical pessimism, the world we live in is definitely bad and hopeless.

Now, just by way of a final opportune comparison, let us consider that he is sublime, the magnanimous one who forgives the enemy and who repays evil with good. He receives the highest praise because he recognized his own being there too, where it resolutely denied himself.

It should also be noted that for both Confucius and Laozi, the sage always indicates moral and not intellectual perfection. In Confucius, the intellect must always be based on irreproachable morals. But in Laozi one gets in the way of the other. In other words, Laozi criticizes the act of living apart from principle, that is, he criticizes those who prefer speculative thought and morals, the knowledge and wisdom of a complex society, of imperative government, of technique as an oppressive technocracy, of the economy that produces goods beyond strictly natural needs, in short: to everything that comprises the selfish and greedy human initiative. In this sense, Laozi will bring from a thought in which the human being is not at the center and its proposal is the return to the state in which the human being did not 'invent'.

In this way, the wise human being never accumulates goods because the more he does good to others, the more he has for himself; the more he gives to others, the more he grows in his being. Moreover, the course of Heaven always benefits him and does not harm him in the least; for the wise human being acts without competing with anyone.

Contrary to Laozi and Zhuangzi, Confucius invited his people to exalt themselves in their own humanity, but he did so without exhorting them about the decisive importance of contemplation and fusion in dao.

Now, when we go into metaphysical pessimism, there is a confrontation similar to what was said above, that is, the human intellect founded on the principium individuationis, at most, hinders the perfection of the immediate way of knowing the artist and the sage. , that which takes place in the perfect contemplation of the Idea of ​​Humanity. In this, essentially, they do not differ in any way from that perfect fusion of the real human being with the dao.

As we have already said, about the conduct of this type of human being, and what we will repeat here, just to reinforce our central argument: Only his conduct proves him to be wise. For it alone, in moral terms, proceeds not from abstract knowledge, but from immediate knowledge of the world and its essence, intuitively apprehended and expressed by him in dogmas, just to satisfy his rational faculty.

Now, mysthetically, we are refusing to admit that the genius artist is just some kind of demoralized sage. Soon, mystéthika will prefer the comic, and even the tragicomic. In this sense, there will be nothing serious about it, because what is proposed is, at least, the 'tragicomedy' of the aesthetic-ethical fusion. This is because the aesthetic immediacy can in no way overcome the ethical immediacy and vice versa, since both are exempt from any ordinary chronological grounding.

However, we must not ignore that 'inaction' (wéi wúwéi) is a mystéthika attitude and that the preference for the playful game of reason with sensitivity will never be abandoned. Mainly because that aesthetic intuition of the metaphysics of the beautiful was added to the game.

Therefore, the sage knows himself, while the intellectual is the one who, at most, has learned to know something about the other. If we think about it based on other Taoist figures, we would say that: in war, the greatest warrior is the one who defeats himself, the greatest general is the one who wins the war without firing a single shot; and on the journey the great traveler travels the greatest distance without ever leaving himself.

We also emphasize that the term pessimism must be accepted here only in the metaphysical sense of a radical and transcendental perspective (in the sense of going beyond as an elementary generic condition to decipher the enigma of the world), from which we can collect theoretical elements for a very valuable critique of the world. practical optimism of human behavior in the contemporary world, for example. However, the similarities in the general lines of these two ways of thinking are even undeniable, as we have already observed, comparing philosophical elements of European metaphysical pessimism with some ideas of the masters of the Far East, and even with those of masters of Middle Eastern pessimism as well. , as in the case of the teachings of Ecclesiastes.

However, and for the purpose of this topic to be even clearer, we can still highlight the similarity of meaning of Chinese expressions referring to inaction and renunciation of the act of acting, characteristic of the denial of the conscious will of itself, constant in ancient Chinese thought. and in modern metaphysical pessimism respectively.

Now, then, it will be quite difficult to argue contrary to the theoretical observation that, in both proposals of thought, what is intended is the true path to freedom, which can be made possible by the rupture of the imperative causal need. In Schopenhauer, the Will determines the drives and impels the body to desire; in Zhuangzi and Laozi, the 'imperative' is that of the natural course of things, governed by dao, and human freedom can be achieved through a contemplative fusion with dao, the true source of wisdom.

Finally, in chapter 38 of Dao De Jing, there is a broad exposition of Laozi's ethics, where the superior virtue is the very performance of the dao in human life, that is, without doing anything, the whole is accomplished. There we can read the following, in a free translation:

The Master does not try to be powerful; so he is really powerful.

The common human being continues to pursue power; so he never has enough.

The sage does nothing, but leaves nothing unfinished.

The average human being is always doing things and yet much more is left undone.

The good human being does something, but something remains to be done.

The just human being does something and leaves many things undone.

The moralistic human being does something and when no one obeys, he raises his shield and uses force.

When the Dao is lost, there is goodness.

When goodness is lost, there is morality.

When morality is lost, there is ritual.

Ritual is the shell of true faith, the beginning of chaos.

That is why the sage is concerned with the depths and not with the surface, with the fruit and not with the flower.

He has no desires of his own.

He dwells in reality and forgets all illusions.

In this sense, on the famous question whether virtue can be taught, it is clear, in Laozi, that it would never happen for a human being to teach virtue to another non-virtuous human being, through the word and through moral treaties. Now, in the conclusion of this section, which was intended to point out the late conclusions of pessimistic metaphysics, both in terms of an artistic virtue and an ethical and moral virtue, in relation to what had already been thought, in a very peculiar way. of the Chinese classical style, we can recognize in both traditions of thought mentioned here, that technical-academic teaching can never generate an ethical-moral or wise genius, nor an aesthetic genius.

Thus, we close this topic of our mystéthiko discourse with a last fragment of the Dao de Jing, which reads: In study, day by day one grows / In the course day by day one decreases / Decreasing more and more decrease / One arrives at the non-acting.