“Being natural,” the good human being, and the goodness of acting naturally in the Laozi and the Nicomachean Ethics

摘要

Laozi's Daodejing ~,~ and Afistode's Nicomacbean Ethics (NE hereafter) are twornuniversaUy recognized classics of ancient Eastern and Western philosophical wisdom.rnAlthough there are obvious and fundamental differences in their intellectualrnwodd-views, both these masterworks display a deep practical concern for humanrnwell being as that is exemplified in the figure of the good person and the goodnessrnof the person's action. In both classical masterworks, the good human being can berndescribed as one who appreciates the goodness of''being natural" both in the woddrnand in the self and responds by "acting naturally." In the ]_ao~' the good human beingrnis the sage (sheng ren ~A) who recognizes "being naturfl" ("naturalness," '%eingrnso of itself') (~ran ~,)1 as the "wa3e' or dao of "non-action" (wuwei ~/~) and respondsrnby following that way in non-actiort. In the N-E, the good human beingis thernvirtuous person (bo agatbos or spoudaios) who recognizes nature (pbusis) as the actualizationrn(ene~geia) of human nature in a life of virtuous activity with others in a politicalrncommunity and responds by living such a life in the person's choices of action. Inrnthis article, I shall argue that an appreciation of the g~od human being and goodnessrnof action in the Lao~/and the NE depends on understanding the fundamental significancernof "being natural" in their respective philosophies.