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Nature, mystery, and morality: a Daoist view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2014

IAN JAMES KIDD
IAN JAMES KIDD*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, County Durham, DH1 3HN, UK e-mail: i.j.kidd@durham.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article argues that a sense of nature's mystery can inspire and inform ways of experiencing and engaging with natural places and creatures in a way that is deeply morally transformative. Focusing on Daoism, it argues that engagement with natural places and creatures can facilitate the cultivation of receptivity to a sense of nature's mystery in a way that gradually releases a person from stances and conceptions that are morally and ecologically objectionable. The article closes by suggesting that a capacity to cultivate receptivity to nature's mystery is contingent upon the concerns and convictions of our background moral and social culture.

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Articles
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Religious Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 165 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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