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Genuine Pretending

On the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi

by Hans-Georg Moeller, Paul J. D'Ambrosio

  • Paperback
  • 240 pages
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • 15.3 x 22.7 x 1.3 cm

£38.13

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For those seeking deeper self-understanding.

Genuine Pretending helps you challenge social norms.

You can thrive by embracing your true self playfully.

Discover the playful wisdom of "Genuine Pretending," a fresh take on the Zhuangzi that encourages you to navigate life's roles with humour and insight.

Genuine Pretending is an innovative and comprehensive new reading of the Zhuangzi that highlights the critical and therapeutic functions of satire and humor. Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D'Ambrosio show how this Daoist classic, contrary to contemporary philosophical readings, distances itself from the pursuit of authenticity and subverts the dominant Confucianism of its time through satirical allegories and ironical reflections.

With humor and parody, the Zhuangzi exposes the Confucian demand to commit to socially constructed norms as pretense and hypocrisy. The Confucian pursuit of sincerity establishes exemplary models that one is supposed to emulate. In contrast, the Zhuangzi parodies such venerated representations of wisdom and deconstructs the very notion of sagehood. Instead, it urges a playful, skillful, and unattached engagement with socially mandated duties and obligations. The Zhuangzi expounds the Daoist art of what Moeller and D'Ambrosio call "genuine pretending" the paradoxical skill of not only surviving but thriving by enacting social roles without being tricked into submitting to them or letting them define one's identity. A provocative rereading of a Chinese philosophical classic, Genuine Pretending also suggests the value of a Daoist outlook today as a way of seeking existential sanity in an age of mass media's paradoxical quest for originality.

Genuine Pretending and You and Your Profile: Identity After Authenticity
You and Your Profile: Identity After AuthenticityGenuine Pretending

  • Title

    Genuine Pretending

  • Author

    Hans-Georg Moeller

  • Book Format

    Paperback

  • Publisher

    Columbia University Press

  • Published

    October 2017

  • Weight

    318g

  • Page Count

    240

  • Dimensions

    15.3 x 22.7 x 1.3 cm

  • ISBN

    9780231183994

  • ISBN-10

    0231183992

  • Eden Code

    4565632

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