The Useless Tree

Taoism

  • Disability and Disease

    I haven't blogged about disability in a long time but Michael Berube's post over at Crooked Timber has brought me back to it. He presses back against those who have an overly simplified expectation of "cures" for disabilities.  A key… Continue reading

  • The Tao of Avatar – and why this sort of movie cannot be made in the PRC at this point in time…

    We saw Avatar last night (I know, I've been on a movie kick of late…).  It was visually stunning.  The story was unremarkable: a melodramatic morality tale (the good guy wins in the end!).  But it did have a couple… Continue reading

  • Another Taoist Christmas

    It's a day late…but that shouldn't really matter to a Taoist.  Here is my annual reflection on the holiday: I have blogged on a Taoist view, or my Taoist view, of Thanksgiving.  But what about Christmas?  What would a Taoist… Continue reading

  • Another Winter Solstice

    Kind of crazy around here now: Christmas duties are pulling at me just as the final grading of the year piles up.  And, on top of it all, I feel a bit sluggish: perhaps the accumulated pressure of the semester… Continue reading

  • Zhuangzi’s Dreaming Doubt

    Raymond Tallis has a short piece in Philosophy Now: "Zhuangzi and that Bloody Butterfly."  He finds the classic anecdote annoying and he sets out to undermine it.  His central argument is that the radical skepticism which suggests we cannot distinguish… Continue reading

  • The Tao of Zombies

    A survey of professional philosophers (hat tip Sullivan) raised many interesting questions, but none more significant than this (scroll down to last question on the page): Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible? Accept or lean toward:… Continue reading

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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