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 examines tool-usage in the Zhuangzi through the lens of Heidegger’s philosophy of technology. Drawing on the ideography of wo 我 – commonly translated as “I” or “self”– I interpret wo as constitutive through its doings, particularly via the use of tools or equipment. The character wo 我 is derived from the radical for “hand” 手holding a dagger-axe 戈, which I address as a broader...