Philosophy > The Coherence of the Dao

            "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao,
            The name that can be named is not the eternal name"[1]

With this introduction of Dao, the Dao De Jing was opened. A book, allegedly written by the legendary Chinese philosopher Lao Zi, that together with the Zhuangzi and Liezi,formed the foundations of a philosophy that has been around for roughly two and a half millennia; daoism. In the Dao De Jing, the daoist view on the world is sketched through short and often paradoxical verses. As in many philosophies, concepts such as truth and reality play a vital role in this worldview. Considering these, and laying them next to the theories of truth, the daoist understanding of life seems to go well with the idealist coherence theory of truth.

            In this theory, the “basic core ... is the conception that beliefs are true or false according to whether or not they... cohere with the body of other beliefs that are true".[2] So, true judgements need to be in coherence with other judgements that are accepted for being true. Additionally, idealist coherence theorists regard reality as an "organically connected whole"[3], with one ultimate truth; the "all-encompassing Absolute"[4].

            This Absolute seems to correspond very well to a concept we saw before; the Dao as portrayed in the Dao De Jing. There, the Dao is described as "eternal"; as "something that can't be named"[5]. It cannot be named, because it is the incomprehensible Absolute. Dao is independent from, and external to, us, corresponding to the idealist view that "reality is not dependent on minds, [and] minds are only parts of reality"[6].  Since Dao encompasses everything, everything is dependent of Dao. Dao is one, and is not fixed: It is organic and inter-dependent, thereby also corresponding to the "idealist doctrine of internal relations"[7]. This inter-dependence is a reoccurring theme in daoism, through e.g. the concept of yin yang, or the second chapter of the scripture[8]. A final, nonetheless very important correspondence between the philosophy and the theory is their attitude towards language. According to the ideal theorists, our language, concepts, perception etc. "tend to limit, distort, and confuse our awareness [of the Absolute]..., dividing reality along lines of our own drawing"[9]. This theme, too, is strongly recurrent in the daoist classics, introduced with "the name that can be named is not the eternal name"[10], meaning that names are subject to change and relativity, and can therefore never represent reality; they can merely point towards the Dao. Language assists us, but simultaneously blurs our view on the absolute reality. By stating that "the named is the mother of the ten thousand things", this is illustrated; when we start to give things names, we discriminate, and different 'things' come into being. However, these things are Dao, and cannot actually "exist in particularity"[11].

            When reading the ancient daoist scriptures, striking similarities can be found with the idealist coherence theorist way of thinking. These correspondences can be found in the Dao as the Absolute, the inter-dependent character of this Dao, and the attitudes towards language and our thinking as an obstruction in seeing this Dao. Therefore, it can be said that the framework of the Daoist philosophy is, in main lines, highly similar to that of the idealist coherence theorists, showing how these theories of truth can sometimes be applied to the most ancient of philosophies.

Small essay written for the course 'Reason, Truth & Beauty' at University College Utrecht, Utrecht University. 

Bibliography

The Complete Tao Te Ching, Translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, Vintage Books, 1989. Retrieved from http://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html. Accessed at 12-09-2012

Reader 'Focusing on Truth', chapter 'Coherence', as found on workspaces

truth theory coherence dao tao philosophy

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