77.
Yang-chu: *
an early Daoist, identified with philosophical trend toward naturalism as the best means of preserving life in a decadent & turbulent world. All creatures save man have survival instinct; man lacking strength must use intelligence to survive; he felt that strength was despicable when used against others. Yang Zhu has faded into obscurity, but in his own time it was so famous it drew fire from the famous Confucian Mencius.
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78.
Mo-ti: *
Mozi's moral teachings emphasized reflecting on one's own successes and failures to obtain true self-knowledge. He argued against blind obedience conformity to ritual & criticised the Confucian slavish devotion to the past. People were capable of changing their circumstances & directing their own lives. They could do this by observing the world, make judgements based on cause/effect, functions and historical bases. He also argued against the Confucian narrow attachment to clan & family, preaching "impartial caring" or universal love. People in principle should care for all people equally, an appeal to enlightened self-interest. Benevolence is natural provided that persons of authority set an example. Universal love is supremely practical, a people should love one another, mutual love by all would bring benefit to all. Heaven was a benevolent moral force that rewarded good and punished evil; it is independent of & higher than man. And "Universal love is the Way of Heaven.” His ideal government was based on merit & talent, not birth. During the Warring States period, Mohism was actively developed & practiced in many states but fell out of favour when Qin (legalist) came to power. The emperor Qin Shi Huang carried out the burning of books & burying of scholars crippling the movement. During the Han dynasty, with the ascendancy of Confucianism, the importance of Mohism further declined & disappeared.
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79.
Chuang-tsu:*
Daoism is a religious/philosophical tradition of China, emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao (literally "Way"). The Tao denotes the principle that is the source, pattern and substance of everything that exists; Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order; Taoist ethics tend to emphasize effortless action, "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity, and the Three Treasures (being compassion, frugality and humility).
80.
Epicureans:*
Originally a challenge to Platonism and then later the main opponent of Stoicism; Epicureans shunned politics; flourished in Late Hellenistic and during the Roman era, the Roman poet Lucretius its best known proponent. By end of Roman Empire it was eclipsed by Neo-Platonism.
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81.
“will to life”:*
The essence of his philosophy holds that all nature, including man, is the expression of an insatiable will to life; thru this mankind finds all their suffering. Desire for more is what causes this suffering. Man is driven by continued, unachievable desires, and the gulf between our desires and the possibility of achieving these leads to misery.
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Schopenhauer represent reality as unknowable; he names this Noumenon (a name & concept originally posited by Kant). Our sensory representation of the world is Phenomenon. This position has led to him being regarded as remaining more faithful to Kant's metaphysical system of transcendental idealism than any of the other later German Idealists.
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Only aesthetic pleasure creates momentary escape from the Will. The world-view of Schopenhauer dictates that the only way for man to achieve inner peace is to renounce desire. Although the concept of desire may be influenced by Buddhist teachings, it should not be treated as direct reference since desire is not thought to be the fundamental nature of human beings in Buddhism.
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82.
Tristan:*
Wagner was inspired by Schopenhauer (particularly The World as Will and Representation); he uses the metaphor of day and night in the second act to designate the realms inhabited by Tristan & Isolde. In the Day the lovers are bound by the dictates of King Marke's court, they hide their love & pretend they do not care for each other: a realm of falsehood & unreality. In the day Tristan must remove Isolde from Ireland to marry her to his Uncle Marke (against his secret desires). Night is when the lovers can be together, their desires openly expressed, reach fulfillment: the realm of oneness, truth and reality but only achieved fully on the deaths of the lovers. The realm of Night becomes also the realm of death: the only world in which Tristan and Isolde can be together forever. It is this realm that Tristan speaks of at the end of Act 2. In Act 3 Tristan rages against the day & cries out for release from his desires. Again there is a link with Schopenhauer as he dictates that the only way for man to achieve inner peace is to renounce his desires.
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Wagner implicitly equates Day with Schopenhauer's concept of Phenomenon and Night with Schopenhauer's concept of Noumenon. None of this is explicitly stated but Tristan's comments on Day and Night in Acts 2 and 3, make it clear that this was Wagner's intention
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83.
Malthusian Darwin: *
Malthus (1766-1834) was an English cleric & scholar, influential in political economy & demography; his An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) argued that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-being of the populace, but this was temporary as it led to population growth, which soon restored the original per capita production level. Mankind utilized food abundance for population growth rather than maintaining a high standard of living, the "Malthusian trap".
In 1838 Darwin read Malthus’s famous essay, noting the Malthusian catastrophe which it posited led to a struggle for survival in which only the fit would successfully procreate and add their superior genes to the population. This could result in the creation of new species when small genetic mutation provided favourable variation giving advantage to an individual. Thus was born the germ of the theory of natural selection.