The Connection between Ontology and Ethics of Spinoza and Laozi

The Daodejing by Laozi and the Ethics by Spinoza are both influential texts on eastern and western thinking, and share numerous philosophical ideas that qualify them as exemplary models for an East-West philosophical study. This book offers a philosophical comparison of the two texts to demonstrate that the metaphysical and ethical systems of the Daodejing and the Ethics share significant commonalities. The Daodejing answers difficult questions regarding the existence and the role of human beings in the universe through an elaborate philosophical system that still influences modern Chinese thought. Containing only five-thousand words, the text addresses ontological, cosmological, ethical, social and even political questions in the form of short chapters with poetic prose. The Ethics also carries great importance for the Western intellectual tradition, as the book upholds rationalism, or the use of reason to find answers to all questions, as the way for making all knowledge possible. Through textual comparisons, this book will demonstrate that Laozi and Spinoza make similar ontological and ethical claims by constructing a similar, nature based ontological monism.