Latest Posts
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The Form of this Body
A gray, overcast, rainy, chilly bleak last day of November here in northwestern Massachusetts. It makes it hard to get energized for the day's and week's work. I feel a bit flat, dispirited even. In general I am a rather… Continue reading
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A Taoist Thanksgiving
Back in 2005, when this blog was only a few months old, I wrote a post, "A Taoist Thanksgiving," which I have returned to over the years. It places my son, Aidan, who died three and a half years ago,… Continue reading
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Chuang Tzu and Oakeshott
Andrew Sullivan has two posts today on Chuang Tzu. He uses them to suggests some parallels between Chuang Tzu and Michael Oakeshott, the British conservative political philosopher who is Sullivan's inspiration. Sullivan picks up on Chuang Tzu's skepticism regarding the… Continue reading
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Ann-Ping Chin on Confucius
Just found this video talk by Ann-Ping Chin, author of The Authentic Confucius. The clip below is a ten minute portion of the hour long talk (linked above) but it gives some sense of her approach. http://fora.tv/embedded_player Continue reading
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Regression toward the Tao
I find Taoist hints in all sorts of places. This morning, during my usual perusal of the Sunday NYT, I hit upon this story in the Sports section: "To hang In, a World Series winner Must Learn to Let Go." … Continue reading
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Warp, Weft, and Way
I have been remiss in noting here the inauguration of the new group blog, Warp, Weft, and Way. It is a transformation of Manyul Im's Chinese philosophy blog into a group effort. I think it is safe to say that… Continue reading
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Contemporary Confucian Miscellany
Some articles in the Chinese press bring several images of Confucianism to mind. These may be mutually contradictory but i will not attempt any sort of ultimate reconciliation. If there is a moral to be drawn here, it might be… Continue reading
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Obama in China: So, what did you expect?
I've been reading some of the commentary about Obama's trip to China and I am struck by the negative tone of much of what I've seen. This piece in the NYT pretty well sums it up: And then, Mr. Obama… Continue reading
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Lone Goose
Posting has dropped off in the past week. I've been busy with work. And some crazy stuff has happened in my department: turns out a man we had hired as a visiting professor (i.e. not a permanent faculty member) was… Continue reading
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The Men Who Stare at Tao
Went to see the movie, "The Men Who Stare at Goats." It is a satire, a goof, on the psychological operations – psy-ops – used by the US military; and in that satire is a critique of those methods, especially… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 