Lao-tzu: Taoism and Moral Philosophy Essay

5. Structure of the Tao Yin: female slow dark night passive intuitive earth Yang: male fast bright day aggressive logical sky Yin and Yang are immortals they have a love/ have relationship each person has yin and yang 6. The wu-wei: non-action, respect to the flow of time, the art of waiting. Opposite of confusious Buddha Buddha is a spiritualist, a prince, gifted 1. Darhma (The teaching) -what is the meaning of human life? Dukkha: suffering, fight, struggle, competition – Why do we inflict upon ourselves unnecessary suffering? Tanha: egotism, selfishness, Trrisha: greed, addiction to pleasure Hudonism: seeking pleasure over pain. Seeking pleasure is a very sophisticated trap any addiction Is loss of freedom. You become a slave of your pleasure – What to do? Anatta: abstinence, restrained. No to any excessive pleasure. The art of no. – What is the goal? Anicca: liberation from addiction 2. The eight fold Noble Path: – Panna: wisdom 1. Understanding 2. Purpose – sila : conflict 3. Speech 4. Behavior Five moral rules: do not kill, steal, adultry, drugs, gossips Have consistancy in your morality, hypocracy corrupts you, don’t live a double life, fake identity Steps 1-5 are for normal people 6-8 are for monks or nuns. – Samadhi: Contemplation 6. Effort you control your body, physical needs, tell body when to sleep and eat 7. thoughtfulness control your emotions 8. Dhayana: deep meditation: control your mind. 3. Karma 3 types of karma * Sabija Karma: my birth karma. Born with culture in sould, reincarnation 4. Nirvana: Two kingdoms of reality Samsava: kingdom of pleasure, shallow Alaya Vijhara: The Kingdom of internal ideas, deep Nirvana: the state of eternal spiritual bliss Protageras: He was king of sophists in athens. Sophist: pofessional teacher 1. Panton anttropas metron : man is the measure of all things 2. Subjectivism: there is no objective truth, every truth is somebody’s truth, or has its face 3. Relativism: as many people as many truths, they are all equal. Accepting diversity 4. Pragmatism: truth has to be helpful, practical, useful 5. Conventionalism: truth is what we have agreed upon (sometimes silently) Ex: cultural expectations, gender roles 6. Conformism: truth of the majority has to be respected by the minorities 7. Tolerance: The truth of the minority has to be tolerated by the majority He reminds me of president obama because his ideas reflect democratic beliefs. Socrates: 1. Choti Seanton: Know Yourself. We humans are animals + Animals + psyche : ( soul) Care for your soul Soul = my self reflection We are reflective animals To reflect = to have knowledge ‘I know that I know nothing’ â€Å"a life unexamined is not worth living† 2. Epistemology (4 principles) Define the basic concepts as clear as you can, avoid misunderstandings Don’t be afraid of intellectual contradictions, diversity in opinions Socratic irony, don’t lose your sense of humor, don’t take yourself so seriously Only god knows the absolute truth, our human truth is limited Protageras: absolute truth doesn’t exist Socrates: absolute truth exits but only god knows 3. Moral Philosophy The essence of morality is to teach us arete: virtue, skills Perfect your skills, perectionism Its better to not be committed than to have a loose commitment Skills =knowledge Life-long education, ignorance is the mother of all evil 4. The idea of god God is the one, god is the absolute wisdom God is my moral vocation God is the voice of my conscience He believes in one god, god speaks to us from inside Find god through self reflection Plato Rich talented, student of socrates 1. Ontology What is the structure of reality? Being: essence deep form logical traditional moral spiritual eternal Becoming: surface, shallow, content, fashionable immoral material temporary What is the structure of being? Being consists of eidoses Eidos: spiritual form, intellectual bluepring , the law, the mold, the model Anything that exists physically has an eidos, it creates each specific physical ting Invention does not exist: discovery, before discovery eidos exists but its like a cold sun without rays The eidos of eidoses is goodness 2. Epistemelogy Levels:RealityKnowledge 1. Fake images illusions, kingdom of the stupid, wild imagination 2. Physcial things, kingdom of the everyday life, practical common sense 3. Low level idoses, kingdom of the professional, professional analytic mind 4. High eidoses, (love, justice, forgiveness) kingdom of the genius, the intellectual intuition of the genius 1 and 2 is becoming 3 and 4 is being 1 is artificial life, building a bubble around yourself 2. Practical things know how to take care of yourself 3. Professional knowledge become an expert in a subject need an analytical mind 4. Very few geniuses, best of the best, shakespeare, einstein, mozart. Have a gift from god or not, only males are geniuses, women are naturally born with common sens e and to become a genius you have to kill your common sense, every genius is a madman 3. Moral Philosophy To be moral means to have a arete: virture The fear of social change, social disorder, social chaos. Arete = not so much perfection but discipline, obedience, good organization, loyalty Plato supports closed social classes doesn’t like social mobility, caste system 4. Hates democracy. Problems are: phony promises of politicians, equal political rights for unequally educated people, excessive freedoms result is anarchy and tyranny he wants aristocratic republic Reminds me of hitler Aristotle Platos student 1. Ontology The kingdom of eidoses doesn’t exist, only nature does exist. Nature is a sum total of physical things Every physical thing consists of hyle: body, matter and telos: form Telos not so much outer form but an inner form the potential of the thing its prgram Dna ex: potential of talent God is the telos of nature when you die your telos dies god and nature coexist eternally 2. Eistemology Using observation and experimentation collect all relevant facts, using analysis, find out the laws of those facts, using logic, combine these laws into a comprehensive theory Scientific theory ^^ 3. Moral Philosophy Nicomachagu Ethics : Eudaimonia: noble destiny, fulfilling duty Sophro syhe: moderation Have good taste keep the mean, be a gentleman Fulfill your telos he believes all of us have gifts a duty to fulfill your gift, work hard we each have gifts to different degrees Don’t betray yourself (lie, cheat). Every betrayal starts as self betrayal you destroy yourself and then destroy everyone around you Honesty and integrity Obstacles: don’t underestimate them but don’t overestimate them Pleasure: not the goal of your activity but a by product Build your character its better to be always bad then unpridictable either be always bad or always bood Friendship: be a good loyal friend 4. Political Philosophy Democracy is the best regime Democracy is the power of middle class The middle class is the foundation of the healthy society.