Category: ethics
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How the Daoist philosopher lives in a good and beautiful world: A brief overview
This series of reflections begins with the post entitled ‘The World does not Need Saving’ (September 17ff). * Dear Philosophical Friend, In reply to your puzzlement, there’s a larger argument that I’ve been canvassing over the past couple of year, an argument that’s become clearer to me over time. I’ll try to sketch a part of that…
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Lacking awe is disaster, having awe is reverence
This series of reflections begins with the post entitled ‘The World does not Need Saving’ (September 17ff). * Either one learns to perceive the world as being good and beautiful, or one takes the world to be ugly and unjust. The first is the contemplative path, one that requires a lifetime of philosophizing in order…
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A Daoist particularist
‘So sometimes things are ahead, and sometimes they are behind; / Sometimes breathing is hard, and sometimes it comes easily; / Sometimes there is strength, and sometimes weakness; / Sometimes one is up, and sometimes down.’ –Laozi, Daodejing 29 * A Daoist does not complain about how things go; he considers the matter at hand in…
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Complaining or coalescing
Complaining requires believing that the complainer has been singled out for ill-usage. What hubris! What error in perception! For how is it possible for one to be singled out at all, let alone for ill-usage, if the world is good and beautiful? Complaining implies that the world runs contrary to one’s desires. In this respect, complaining…
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What follows from the assumption that the world is bad?
What follows from the assumption that the world is bad? * I. Misery (Passive, Individual) 1. The world is bad. 2. Here is an instance of its badness. 3. It applies to me, adversely affects me. 4. Therefore, I shall complain. II. Accusation (Active, Individual) 1. The world is bad. 2. Here is an instance…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 