Lao-zi

From Philosopedia

Lao-zi (Lao-tzu)(Lao-tse) (Born c. 604 B.C.E.)

Lao-zi is the Chinese philosopher who reputedly founded Taoism. If he actually lived, he likely knew Kongfu-zi (Confucius), who was younger, and neither was a religious supernaturalist.

Both were freethinking conservatives. Lao-zi (which means “old philosopher”) is, according to J. M. Robertson, “the first known philosopher who denied that men could form an idea of deity, that being the infinite”; and he avowed “the idea of a primordial and governing Reason (Tau), closely analogous to the Logos of later Platonism. . . . His system is one of rationalistic pantheism.”

He reduced religion to a minimum, denying superstition and teaching the rule of returning kindness for evil. However, Robertson laments, “the quietist and mystical philosophy of Lao-Tze and the practicality of Confucius alike failed to check the growth of superstition among the ever-increasing ignorant Chinese population.” In fact, in a short time both men came to be worshiped as a god.

Contemporary Taoism (Daoism), Joseph McCabe has remarked, “has as little relation to his teaching as the Roman Catholic system has to the teaching of Jesus.” Although some contemporary scholars think Lao-zi did not actually live, if he did he is credited with the poetic passages in the main Daoist text, Dao De Jing (Way and Virtue Classic).

{CE; ER; HNS; JM; JMR; JMRH; New Humanist, October 1998; RE}