Category: meditation
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Sageliness within or kingliness without
I am reading Yu-Lan Fang’s A Short History of Chinese Philosophy alongside Plato’s Republic. According to Fang, the leitmotif of Chinese philosophy is that of ‘sageliness within’ and ‘kingliness without.’ Plato speaks similarly of the Philosopher-King as being the one who, just because he has wisdom, is also fit to rule. Years ago, I believed that the philosopher…
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Addendum: Sweetness of temper
Thus I wrote yesterday evening to my Aleksandra: In the opening of Book I of his Meditations, Marcus gives thanks to his grandfather first and then to the biological father he never knew. In his grandfather, he sees an example of ‘sweetness of temper.’ In the father he never knew, that of modesty and manliness. Combine these three in…
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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…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 