TY - JOUR
AU - Asaba, Chi Derek
AB - Mercedes Valmisa, Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action, New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. Hardback, ISBN: 9780197572962; E-book, ISBN: 9780197572979. xi + 209 pp., $74.00. Mercedes Valmisa, in this monograph, reconstructs an extraordinary strategy devised by classical Chinese philosophers for effective relational action that accounts for the interdependent character of human beings. She describes this strategy as “adapting” or “adaptive agency” (yin 因), which she traces in carefully selected texts, including the Analects《论语》, Daodejing《道德經》, Zhuangzi 《庄子》, as well as political, military, historical, and mantic classics. With reference to the fundamental concept of wu 物 as an entity physically demarcated from other entities, the author expounds on the relationality between the agent and one’s environment. Valmisa develops a relational ontology that starts from the fact that nothing or no action can be defined independently from other things, for all creatures are interwoven into relationships. These relationships “facilitate, condition, and potentially constrain their self, thinking, emotions, preferences, capacities, and options” (p. 3). The issue at stake here is the fact that everything exists in interrelation and that relationality implies interdependency and oneness. Early Chinese philosophers devised and practiced a form of relational action (Adapting) that enables us to manage our own 
TI - Adapting: A Chinese Philosophy of Action, written by Mercedes Valmisa
JF - Journal of Chinese Philosophy
DO - 10.1163/15406253-12340142
DA - 2025-01-24
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/brill/adapting-a-chinese-philosophy-of-action-written-by-mercedes-valmisa-N0syH2DZth
SP - 206
EP - 208
VL - 51
IS - 2-3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -