The Ethical Implications of the Sage’s way of Laozi

Abstract

The Sage’s way of Laozi contains opulent ethical thoughts, which takes “the ways of Tao by the Self-so” as a universal ethical principle, presenting a transcendental cosmological ethics, Laozi postulated an ideal moral personality of the Sage and proposed a method of cultivation to become a Sage, following the ethical principle of “natural inaction”, keeping the cultivation work of “to the void and to the quiet”, having the attitude of “act without striving”, cultivating the spiritual state of “conscious ignorance”, and performing the utilitarian act of “selflessness and altruism”, the Sage’s way of Laozi provides people with principles and methods for cultivating their moral character, and has certain inspirational significance for the study and development of ethics in realistic society.