Tag: Beauty

• September 24, 2013

  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…
• September 18, 2013

  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…
• August 17, 2013

  Coursing Meditations

  How to present a flowing day? ‘Coursing’: A philosophical life moving in pictures, in turning holding pictures. Look: http://is.gd/1tqROX  1 What is the beautiful course of a day? How does one follow nature’s course? A line, drawn by hand, drawing the day, is both extensive and intensive. Extensive: flowing through time without resistance. Intensive: expressing the…
• June 27, 2013

  ‘Now being seen off, now seeing off…’

  Kenko writes, ‘In all things, it is the beginnings and the ends that are interesting.’ A greeting, a farewell; a fresh hello, a tender adieu. In Robert Aitken’s translation of Basho’s haiku, we observe the farewell at its most elemental: ‘Now being seen off, Now seeing off–the outcome: Autumn in Kiso.’ What is of interest, of…
• June 26, 2013

  There is nothing worse than a house that is too done up…

  ‘A house, I know, is but a temporary abode, but how delightful it is to find one that has harmonious proportions and a pleasant atmosphere. One feels somehow that even moonlight, when it shines into the quiet domicile of a person of taste, is more affecting than elsewhere. A house, though it may not be…