Coming to know anything as philosophy

Abstract

I make explicit how Michael Beaney’s The Joy of Chinese Philosophy is a reflexive book: its subject matter, the happy fish dialogue, and the overarching goal in discussing that subject are the same. Both the dialogue and the book, I argue, present a performative argument in favor of roaming beyond the confines of one’s own given perspective. In both cases the strength of the performative argument depends on the credibility of a crucial analogy. I point out that the analogy used by Beaney in the book hinges on certain familiar characteristics of analytic philosophy being retrofitted onto the happy fish dialogue, and I question whether this analogy can be maintained in the face of contextualist interpretations of the Zhuangzi. I use this case to present an overall methodological puzzle about comparative philosophy: what is the point at which the fusion of intellectual horizons becomes senseless to create? I argue that this is a question, not only for Beaney, but equally a question that arises from within the happy fish dialogue itself.