Taoism
Follow the Dao, the natural way of things, and act through non-action
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Key ideas
- The Dao is the nameless source and way of all things
- Non-action (wu wei): not forcing the natural course
- Simplicity, softness and yielding overcome strength
- Zhuangzi: the relativity of judgements and freedom of spirit
Key thinkers
- Laozi (founder) — Chinese sage, founder of Taoism, 571 BC–471 BC
- Zhuangzi — Chinese Taoist philosopher, 369 BC–286 BC
What grew out of it
- Chan and Zen c. since 500 · Asia
- Neo-Confucianism c. 1000 – 1900 · Asia
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Pythagoreanism Europe
- Eleatics Europe
- Sophists Europe
- Ancient atomism Europe
- Cynicism Europe
- Platonic Academy Europe
- Peripatetic school Europe
- Pyrrhonism Europe
- Epicureanism Europe
- Stoicism Europe
- Patristics Africa
- Neoplatonism Europe
- Kalam Middle East
- Falsafa Middle East
- Nominalism Europe
- Scholasticism Europe
- Renaissance humanism Europe
- British empiricism Europe
- Continental rationalism Europe
- The Enlightenment Europe
- German idealism Europe
- Utilitarianism Europe
- Positivism Europe
- American transcendentalism Americas
- Russian religious philosophy Eastern Europe & Russia
- Existentialism Europe
- Marxism Europe
- Pragmatism Americas
- Russian cosmism Eastern Europe & Russia
- Phenomenology Europe
- Analytic philosophy Europe
- Structuralism Europe
- Logical positivism Europe
- Négritude Africa
- Postmodern philosophy Europe