Tool Usage and Self-Carving in the Zhuangzi : A Heideggerian Perspective
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology December 4, 2025 Agnė Veisaitė
This paper argues that the Chinese character wo 我, usually translated as “I” or “self,” contains a tool metaphor (a hand holding a dagger-axe) that reveals selfhood as constituted through tool-using activities. Drawing on Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, the author contends that the wo-self, like Dasein, is embedded in social roles and tool-bearing practices. By analyzing skill stories in the Zhuangzi alongside references to rectifying tools, the paper proposes that the tool metaphor can either reinforce inherited circumstances and social roles (ming 名/命) or provide a means to cut through them. The author further argues that self-forgetting in skilled activities arises not from absorption in action alone but through dialogical attunement to non-human presence.