T_Clark

Verse 19 Ellen Marie Chen Eliminate sagacity (sheng), discard knowledge (chih), People will be profited (li) a hundredfold. Eliminate humanity (jen), ...

I don't know if you've been following along at all. We've been having a discussion of knowledge and how it is handled in the TTC. Why don't you go bac...

I've never gotten the bellows thing. Does it have something to do with Verse 11 - emptiness? This is Chen's translation: Thirty spokes share one hub t...

This is your original statement that set off the idea/concept discussion. Let's go back to it. Are you saying that, although the idea of hope is one o...

Note - I've responded to more than one of your posts in this one response. As far as I'm concerned, there's no need to discuss this more. Which doesn'...

Thanks.

Are we Sisyphus? Are anti-natalists Sisyphus? I think of myself more as Prometheus, bringing knowledge to the benighted masses here on the forum.

I like this, both as insight and as rhetoric. I'm going to save it in case I ever accidentally get involved in an anti-natalist discussion.

Seems like it. Maybe Bartricks or Schopenhauer1 will respond and we can see if they differ.

I think you may be right. I'll be on the lookout for verses where we can discuss this.

Are you making a distinction between the concept of hope and the idea or quality of hope? If so, I don't understand. When I say hope is bad, I just me...

Thanks for the information. I've spent time with the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi, but not the other documents you listed. I'll take a look at them. I ha...

For me, the TTC is the antithesis of a logical framework. As I've said before, it's non-rational. Non-logical. Non-mathematical. I don't understand wh...

Guys doing experiments, calculating, theorizing, investigating following the scientific method - that's science. The scientific method itself - that's...

One role I can think that is fundamentally philosophical rather than scientific is addressing issues related to the scientific method rather than resu...

I'm not a Christian, or even a theist, of any sort, so I don't have an opinion on anything you've written. Even so, I wanted to complement you on an i...

No need to go into it any deeper now, but this is at the heart of how I use the TTC. As I've said many times, for me, the primary value of the TTC is ...

I want them to take what I say at face value. I believe, and I think Lao Tzu would agree, that hope distracts us from the path he is trying to show us...

Yes. Also, @"Valentinus" is a mason.

I recognize my true nature. I can feel it. Sometimes. Wu wei is acting from our true nature. Sometimes I can do that. I know what wu wei feels like. N...

Yes, I was definitely influenced by Mitchell's translation. It was the first translation I read and those lines are some of the ones that jumped out a...

I said I don't have any "strong, rational evidence." The TTC is not about rational anything. You keep coming back to my use of my "own personal judgem...

Your posts have been pretty obnoxious. It's no wonder no one wants to come out an play.

For me, the TTC was like a pair of gloves I found. I put them on and they fit, so I've worn them ever since. My intellectual, spiritual, emotional, an...

I've tried to be clear about when I think something is true and when I think Lao Tzu thinks its true. Generally, I think I've been pretty successful i...

I'm thinking back through this and trying to figure out whether I've overstated my case. Do I believe "...there is a fundamental and unavoidable confl...

We've had this discussion. For better or worse, I have decided that it makes sense for me to accept the translations we have of the TTC as a group as ...

So, does the TTC have a structure? Am I mixing the TTC up with the Tao? First off, of course the TTC has a structure - 81 verses. First 37 are about T...

Actually, I hate to admit it, but "blub, blub, blub" is a pretty good summary of my philosophy.

You've misused the term "ad hominem" again.

Stop it.

You should stop this. @"Georgios Bakalis" is new here and you're stealing his thread.

It is extremely inconsiderate to shanghai someone's thread for a completely unrelated subject. You should stop.

Agreed. But then the problem is that people don't recognize that. They think that the right place to stand is self-evident.

This is an ontological judgement and, as such, it's already working within a defined ontological framework. Not to be all meta and all. That's the pro...

I think of ontologies as metaphysical tools. I envision my trusty tool box. I have a problem, I open it up and pull out the one that's most useful in ...

Me too. As I've said, my take on mysticism is very meat and potatoes. I'm always thinking - what's all the excitement about. I do like Brussels sprout...

I try not to be judgmental about this sort of thing. Use of drugs to change awareness can be part of a disciplined mystical practice. Who am I, as a v...

We're on a philosophy forum. I said your comment was unresponsive, not inappropriate. That's a quibble, but, hey, as I said, it's a philosophy forum. ...

Not an ad hominem argument. Not an argument at all. I think the worst that can be said against @"ernest meyer" is that he did not appropriately respon...

I used confusing language. I was saying there is a fundamental and unavoidable conflict between intellect and wu wei.

I keep coming back to this - Lao Tzu doesn't make judgements about good and bad or even good and ok. Except that he does. I don't think he's changing ...

I don't understand. He's saying exactly what I was trying to say? Especially in the first paragraph. I need to work on being clearer.

I'm a coffee in the morning, wine in the evening kind of guy.

I want to say "I just don't get it," when I talk about the so-called hard problem, but I do get it. I get why people see it as a problem. It's because...

I'm a pragmatist. I paint everything white.

Good quotes. I'll keep them around for my next consciousness discussion.

I'm going to rewrite this: I think consciousness life is considered a difficult problem in philosophy because for hundreds of years it has proven impo...

The book is the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. If you go back to the first page in this thread and read the first couple of posts, it gives a rundown. There...

If the Tao Te Ching grabs you and shakes you and tells you and if you say, "Yes, this is exactly right. I've always known this," then, yes, you can be...