T_Clark

@"MrLiminal", @"Patterner" Another aspect of the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu is a radical approach to morality. This is from Brook Ziporyn's tr...

@"MrLiminal" This is a good description of Lao Tzu's and Chuang Tzu's vision of the Taoist path, as you note, the right way to live our lives, but I c...

I was also a fan of the TV show. I don't remember the movie.

The two day Shoutbox statute of limitations has passed for my previous comment.

This year, I plan to follow in the steps of Bertrand Russell and to make no resolutions for 2025.

It's true and confusing. Sometimes Chuang Tzu depicts him as someone who doesn't understand and sometimes he treats him as a sage.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Did you have something from Confucius or Mozi in mind? It is my understanding that the Tao Te Ching was written in...

Here is my non-mathematician's understanding - All arithmetic comes back to counting. Each counting number has a name (1,2,3...1,000,000,001...). It i...

This surprises me. I experience what Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu wrote as simple and down to earth. I call it meat and potatoes philosophy. That's why it a...

There is an important concept in Taoism - "wu wei." It means action without action. Acting from your inner nature, your Te, without reflection or inte...

You'll find ideas central to the Tao Te Ching in many other philosopher's work. It struck me that Kant's noumena is a very similar concept to the Tao....

You're exactly right, and that's right at the heart of what the Tao means to me. Of course Lao Tzu understands the irony of speaking about what cannot...

He's made it clear what he's interested in. You should back off.

Why don't you pick a verse of the Tao Te Ching you'd like to discuss.

@"MrLiminal" is talking about what the Tao Te Ching says and his description is a pretty good one. If you want to disagree with a 2,500 year old philo...

I have a strong interest in Taoism as expressed in the works of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. I have never found a philosophy closer to my own understanding...

It is a commonplace, legitimate, and useful metaphysical position that an objective reality doesn't exist. From that point of view, there is no ultima...

If you're modelling a farmyard, it's the overall behavior of the system that matters, not the behavior of individual elements. For that, the relations...

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/download/2705/YGID%20small.png

Azimov’s Rules of Robotics - 1942 The Three Laws, presented to be from the fictional "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are: A robot may...

If you’d ever been to a seafood cookout on the beach, you know that you steam food there by placing wet seaweed over your fire and burying the various...

Yes, hypothetically I acknowledge I am a very poor reader. Or alternatively - I hypothetically acknowledge I am a very poor reader. Or maybe - I ackno...

I did not indicate how long it took me to read the book.

Impressive. The only one on your list I've read is "The Wisdom of Insecurity." It's probably my favorite book by Alan Watts. It's one of his earliest ...

Emotions themselves are, as I wrote, our natural bodily and mental reactions to events and are, mostly, outside of our direct control. On the other ha...

Here's a joke you can tell your orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist. What did the physical therapist say to the bartender? Nice joint you've got ...

Perhaps that makes us all philosophical plankton.

In the world as I understand it, moral judgments are created by humans, so it makes sense to talk about their value. Emotions, on the other hand, are ...

Yes, thanks for reminding me. When I wrote "Everyone, even a Neanderthal" I had forgotten about rednecks, hayseeds, and crackers.

I think of this from the perspective of Taoist philosophy as expressed in the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. In my experience, Taoism is an inwar...

I think this is clearly not true. It's the party line spouted by anti-religious bigots without providing more than anecdotal evidence. I think of all ...

I'm shocked! Shocked! to find you have a different attitude about this than I do. I've been trying to get myself to start a new discussion about this....

What gave it away was when you wrote "boiled clams." Everyone, even a Neanderthal, would know you don't boil clams, you steam them.

I’m skeptical that any of this is true.

This makes sense. I’m sure Martha would agree with you.

Little known fact - the recipe for Manhattan Clam Chowder was developed by head chef Juan Valdez (no relation) in the Long John Silvers in Manhattan K...

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Martha Stewart will tell you that most seafood soups are better with milk based broths rather than tomato based ones. The acidity of the tomatoes tend...

I think that was Campbell's condensed Vietnamese Sticky Fish Stew. It should be there on the shelf along with the Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle...

I don't know enough to speak about the historical relationship between religion and philosophy, but from my modern perspective, they fill very similar...

Another in a line of movies that my son makes me watch to make me a more sophistimakated person - "The Long Day Closes." About a British boy in the 19...

I knew that and I enjoy your Shoutbox contributions, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows you are not just another pretty face obsessive goor met.

I’ve said this before, you spend most of your time these days in the shoutbox, but when you venture out into the real world of philosophy, you general...

Not wrong but I’m not sure it’s possible.

What value does moral disapproval have if you aren't going to act? Answer - none. It doesn't mean anything. As @"ToothyMaw" notes, it's emotional reac...

I've never read it. I'll add it to my list.

Thanks for the heads up.

I wasn't familiar with the term "deflationism so I looked it up. I'm still not sure I understand what it means, so I'm not sure what I'm going to say ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcVSC1vaYyM

Most people called "narcissists" are just difficult people, everyday garden variety assholes, or people the "diagnostician" doesn't like. Narcissistic...