Daoism and Human Rights: Integrating the Incommensurable

Abstract

There is practically no explicit discourse on human rights in the Daoist tradition or in contemporary Daoist scholarship and practice. This article begins by discussing the ontological incommensurability between Daoist notions of inner spontaneity and self-transcendence, and the external frameworks of the state, agonistic legal systems, and contractual rights and obligations between self-interested individuals that underpin human rights regimes. And yet, while Daoism and human rights may be incommensurable, they are compatible. In an imaginary Daoist utopia, a legal regime of human rights would be unnecessary, as all people would attain a spontaneous harmony in which no person would infringe on another. But since, in the reality of the world of common people and rulers, most people are unable to control their will to power over others, human rights are thus necessary as a basic protection for each individual against the interference of others and of the state. A Daoist, then, might see human rights as a desirable foundation, that must be coupled with the supreme value of self-cultivation to embody Dao, ultimately transcending the very need for human obligations and rights.