Yearley to explore use of wandering

Mike Alberti Assistant Life Editor

Stanford University Professor of Philosophy Lee H. Yearley said that he accepted the invitation to deliver the Matthew Vassar lecture on Wednesday April 4, “presuming that Vassar students, like most Stanford students, have a lurking idea in their minds that they need to be useful. I believe there is a perspective that wants to say that society just uses up useful people, that is, drains the vitality from them.”

Yearley holds the title of Walter Y. Evans-Wentz Professor of Oriental Philosophies, Religions, and Ethics at Stanford University, where he has been teaching for more than 30 years. His lecture entitled “The Daoist Virtue of ‘Useless Wandering,” will take place from 5-7 p.m. in Taylor 203.

“I’ll be talking about two ideas within the early Chinese religious tradition that are particularly challenging and useful,” said Yearley. “The first one says that rather than being on a goal-oriented path, the best spiritual state is to be a wanderer, because we must constantly try to reorient ourselves to the world, and that involves not simply seeing ourselves as trying to pursue some kinds of goals.
The second idea is that trying to be useful to society can actually be very dangerous.”

Associate Professor of Philosophy Bryan Van Norden, who was a student of Yearly’s while at Stanford, invited Yearly to speak at Vassar. Van Norden said in an e-mailed statement, “What is perhaps most distinctive of his approach is that, in contrast with many who seek to ‘debunk’ religious thought, Yearley makes an effort to take seriously and learn from both Western and Chinese religious traditions.”

The Daoist virtue of useless wandering refers to the philosopher Zhuangzi, considered by many to be the greatest of the Daoist thinkers. Zhuangzi presented a vision of the superiority of a life of “useless wandering” to one that is consciously goal-directed.
“There is a very delineated and strong sense that change is an overwhelming characteristic of the world,” said Yearley. “We are in constant transition, and the only way to deal well with that is to not get caught up in certain types of projects and conventions. That’s a very different picture of spiritual fulfillment than in the West.”

Yearley said that he aims to apply these teachings to the present so that students question their line of thinking. “These ideas have a lot of ethical implications,” he said. “They have serious implications for the way we live our lives.”

Yearley began his career studying western religions, with a particular focus on Catholicism, but he became increasingly interested in Chinese philosophy. His book, Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage, is required for philosophy classes at many schools, including Vassar.

Van Norden said, “Given Yearley’s broadly humanistic vision, his immense popularity as a teacher at Stanford, and his multicultural concerns his talk should be of interest to the entire Vassar community.”