Latest Posts
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Thoughts on Wittgenstein and Chuang Tzu
One of the nice things about my job is that I get to take a leave from teaching every so often (we get one semester off after three years on, or one year off after six years on). … Continue reading
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Straw Dogs
A piece in yesterday’s NYT Book Review caught my eye, a review of a new book, Black Mass, by John Gray, the British political philosopher. Gray has popped up here on The Useless Tree twice before, once in… Continue reading
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A China Guy Goes To India (2): Caste and Democracy
(Cross posted on China Digital Times) Before I jump into today’s topic – caste and democracy – let me just note two newspaper stories that speak to my last China/India comparison. They both deal with the changing role of women… Continue reading
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Another Taoist Thanksgiving
Here we are again on my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. It is my third blogging Thanksgiving and I really cannot think of a better way to mark the occasion than with the post from my first blogging Thanksgiving. There… Continue reading
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A China Guy Goes To India (1): Tradition and Modernity
My two week tour of India (Mumbai, Rajasthan, Agra, Delhi) has brought comparison with China into my mind. This is the first of three posts on those comparisons. This story is cross posted on China Digital Times, as will be… Continue reading
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Cloning: It’s not just for Buddhists and Hindus
John Tierney writes in today’s NYT about global religious differences and human cloning: “Asian religions worry less than Western religions that biotechnology is about ‘playing God,’” says Cynthia Fox, the author of “Cell of Cells,” a book about… Continue reading
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A Bad Day at the Delhi Airport
We’re home now, back in rural northwestern Massachusetts, quite literally a world away from India, but only after a harrowing and frustrating struggle at the Delhi airport. It was something out of a bad movie. When we… Continue reading
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Agra and the Taj
Let me be a tourist for a moment, because that is what I have been for the past two weeks… The Taj Mahal is extraordinary. Yesterday we went to the "baby Taj," a tomb/memorial for the… Continue reading
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Tigers and Temples and Tikka
It has been hard to find time in a hectic schedule to post from India. But here I find myself with a few moments in the dusty town outside of Ranthambore National Park (where we saw tigers today)… Continue reading
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Mencius: To Thine Own Self Be True
Mencius said: "If a common official cannot inspire a sovereign’s trust, he’ll never win over the people and govern them. But there’s a Way to inspire a sovereign’s trust. If you can’t inspire trust in your friends, you’ll never inspire… Continue reading
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