Philosophy Thread

I really ought to actually read the Tao Te Ching at some point. The way the passages I've seen seem to correspond to the person or people writing it being very aware of limitations of language's ability to communicate certain concepts directly is intriguing. Put simply, I'm fond of dialectics, and dialectical monism is a very interesting area.

(┌ﾟдﾟ)┌Limitations of language's ability to communicate certain concept..The Tao Te Ching was written in classical Chinese used in Pre-Qin period(we often say scholars who stufy pre-Qin Chinese can read all the old books fluently), many quotes in it are even difficult to comprehend for the native speakers of Chinese (modern Chinese). But most students can recite those classical quotes of the Tao Te Ching.

It is interesting to think about how much more knowledge in our heads gets miscommunicated due to our language as a limitation.

@songofsisyphus Red pine is a good translator if you're looking for an English version.

On language, I speculate that I (and possibly a number of Buddhist scholars, as well as well as Lao tzu) would make a case that psychology generally is so inextricably tied to language that in order to get people to actually understand certain things you have to present them with paradoxes that 'break' language in a way. I think this is often the purpose of Koans, and the section in the Tao Te Ching that describes the Tao ("The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao", etc etc). Of course, things like this will always leave one open to the possible contention that "Okay, so if everything, even psychology is so deeply tied to linguistic capacities, then how can one communicate or even internalise concepts outside of language itself" -- At which point the response I imagine is to shrug and say "Well, they are still being communicated through language, after a fashion, but in a slightly more convoluted way; rather by gesturing towards something that cannot logically exist under a static self-identity, we induce a change in the mind so as to perceive and interpret in a different way, and that new state of mind can possibly lead to a greater understanding of that which lies outside of itself, if indeed something does." But really before I start making claims like this I ought to put in the legwork and do more research. Speaking of which, @kuharido , thanks for the recommendation =).