What is the Tao (Way) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is the Tao (Way) - Essay Example The Confucian way of Tao and the East and West ways of Tao will be examined in the paper. The definition of Tao is "Tao represents the basic concept of Taoism. In general, this term belongs to the spiritual atmosphere of the ancient China and can be translated "way", "mean", "art", "skill"., 1 To answer the question, what is the Tao way, depends on which tenets of Tao you side with. Tao can be translated differently depending on the perspective of the doctrines of Tao and individuals understand. This means that individuals have different doctrines of Tao and it depends on which of these doctrines an individual understands and how they understand that the question can be answered. Tao can be though of a philosophical school of thought and one of these schools of thought is the one that concerns the thoughts of Confucius. According to Confucius and those that understand Tao with these doctrines Tao "refers , "Tao" refers to the art of ruling the state of the ancient emperors like King Wen and the Duke of Chou," 2 1 Mitchell, Stephen. "Tao Te Ching" (1998) New York. 1st Perenn similar concepts." 3 In this context, the polisemy of this term resembles the polisemy of the concept "prima materia" of the Greek-Egyptian classique alchemy or of the medieval European alchemy. The way of Tao is the way a person perceives these tenets and uses them in their life. They can be used in all aspects of an individual's life from work ethic to the way they understand the world. The Tao way can be thought of as the way a person understands. The way a person understands Tao depends on their beliefs about Tao. Tao is traditionally an Eastern religion and school of thought; however, it is now practiced in the Western cultures. The answer to the question might differ in the East than the West because the doctrines and interpretation have changed slightly in Western cultures. This is due to the fact that Tao is a part of life in the East for many and they been taught the philosophies and doctrines of Tao since birth. Tao in a sense has been adopted in the Western cultures so so me of the concepts have deviated in the process. Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought Jay L. Garfield and Graham Priest Nagarjuna seems willing to embrace contradictions while at the same time making use of classic reductio arguments. He asserts that he rejects all philosophical views including his own-that he asserts nothing-and appears to mean it. It is argued here that he, like many philosophers in the West and, indeed, like many of his Buddhist colleagues, discovers and explores true contradictions arising at the limits of thought. For those who share a dialetheist's comfort with the possibility of true contradictions commanding rational assent, for Nagarjuna to endorse such contradictions would not undermine but instead confirm the impression that he is indeed a highly rational thinker. It is argued that the contradictions he discovers are structurally analogous to many discovered by Western philosophers and mathematicians. 3 Graham explains that "Taoism, the practice of the Tao concepts) started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved into a religious faith in 440 CE when it was adopted as a state religion." 4 At that time, Lao-Tse became popularly venerated as a deity. Earlier in this discussion, the Confucius philosophy was explained to be one school of thought that individuals used to understand Tao. This is because they are closely related and the thoughts of Eastern religions have many of the same doctrines. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the three great religions of China around the time of 440 CE. "With the

Analyse the Hamidian era from the perspective of economic change, and Essay

Analyse the Hamidian era from the perspective of economic change, and explain the ways in which the agenda of the Hamidian state - Essay Example However, there always was a distinction between different dynasties and Sultan’s in the way of political agendas over the different historical eras. Thesis statement: When we talk about Hamidian Era, this makes specific reference to Sultan Abdul amid II's period of rule during the 2nd half of the 19th century and early 20th century; specifically 1876-1909. Nevertheless, the era was characterized with various aspects in terms of economic performance and political leadership. How was economic performance related to the political governance of the era? How did the economic challenges that were experienced in the era influence Sultan Abdul amid II's political agenda? Discussion This paper intends to present an analysis of the Hamidian state during the Hamidian era in economic change perspective. Despite the commendable organization of the state during the reign of Sultan Abdul amid II, economic forces shook the state greatly. Economic forces such as foreign creditor’s debts and losing some regions to other imperial powers characterized the state’s governance. It is these forces and effects that this paper intends to analyze in the perspective of altering the Sultan’s political agenda. The paper will outline in details the economic pressures faced. An analysis of the political agenda of the empire will follow. The influence of these economic forces to the political agenda of the Sultan will then follow. In the efforts to destroy or abolish past legitimating crises that had engulfed the empire, on ascension to power, Sultan Abdul amid II adopted centralization system of governance. As the sole way to reform and save the entire empire from the sub sequential topple by the imperial colonies, Abdul amid II chose to ignore the reform calls by the westerners to implement their proposal. He established and imposed pan Islam policy whose main aim was to safeguard the interests of the Muslim culture in the empire against the invasion and corruptio n by other cultures. He advanced the segregation of other people on the basis of religion through supporting the Muslim religion against the ‘others’. The otto9man identity was a creation of modernization. Through this creation, the sovereigns appeared superior to their counterpart non-sovereigns. Religion identity was a critical aspect of association in the era of Hamidian. His policies were thus seen to be far from modernity; well interpreted to represent nationalism which instead of acknowledging individual identity, it concentrates with group. This was evident in his advocacy for Muslim protection and support. The Kurd people became beneficially of the same as unlike the case with other tribes who were easily overlooked on the grounds of religion, the Kurds were well integrated in the empire by the virtue of Muslim brotherhood (Yokmac, 2012, para 1-15). Economic challenges: The nineteenth century marked a historic time to the Ottoman Empire through which so much of the future shaping of the empire would rely. Despite the strength that the empire exhibited in the previous era, the empire started by slowly weakening in terms of political power, her territorial region in North Africa and in Europe. The political influence of the empire had been shaken by the dependency that had resulted by the poor economic performance that the empire had sailed through. Many of the policies that the previous governments had adopted proved unworkable. This necessitated engaging