The Tao Te Ching Essay

the world to try to maintain peace and order. As easy as it sounds, governments can be demolished without the right leader. However, that is the catch, what makes a good leader? Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of the Prince” and Lao-Tzu’s “Tao-te Ching” gives some ideas on how a leader should control their government. Although Machiavelli’s and Lao-Tzu’s ideas do not quite go hand and hand, there are some similarities. They both spoke similarly on how people should feel about their leader. Lao-Tzu

Lao-tzu makes some statements in the Tao-te Ching that support a materialist view of experience. One example can be found near the end of the passage. He writes, “People enjoy their food, take pleasure in being with their families, spend weekends working in their gardens, delight in the doings

enlightened one teaching about the dharma in the rest of his life. Today it has around ~350million followers. It doesn’t fit exactly into the term as a religion as it also has philosophy teachings (Brodd 145). Taoism was founded on the principles of Tao Te Ching written by Lao-Tzu a Chinese philosopher living in the 4th century BCE. It

an opposite to everything. The universe flows in harmony without ever stopping. In chapter 42 of the Tao-Te-Ching there is a reference about yin and yang. The Tao is one, from the one come yin and yang, from these two creative energy (chi), from energy, ten thousand things, the forms of all creations, all life embodies yin and embraces yang, through their union achieving harmony. (Tao-Te-Ching, Ch. 51) This brings us to our next concept, the five elements. The five elements are earth, metal

Lao-Tzu wrote the Tao-Te Ching back in sixth century B.C.E as he was exiling himself to a life of contemplation. Before he left, the gatekeeper convinced him to write down his philosophical thoughts. Machiavelli was an elite who lived in Florence during the late 1400s and the early 1500s. He wrote his instructions, The Prince, during the instability of power within Italy after he was wrongly imprisoned. Both texts give advice on the ways in which to rule a country, but because of the times in which

a complex...variety of ways in which slavery entered the politics of the period” (Maizlish). Lao-tzu had a simple mindset about the use of weapons and fear to control a person, which boils down to only using weapons in dire situations. From the Tao-te Ching he says this: “Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity” (Lao-tzu). Frederick Douglass would have agreed with this statement, and he could easily see the way slavery had corrupted the country.

Peace and War (Compare Machiavelli and Lao-Tzu) Throughout ancient history, there have been a number of ways that human beings have attempted or succeed in governing people. There has been an assortment of religions or philosophical ways that were said to be the best way to lead people, in order to gain power, or whatever their goal might be. Many of these ideas went against each other, saying the other one was wrong. One example of this was Niccole Machiavelli and his philosophical view, through

How do I live my life? Since the early beginnings of society people have always been concerned with our behavior in public and conduct towards others: how should I behave towards my parents, how should I treat my friends, and in what way can I best show my respect for the gods? Religion was the first form of moral code; the writers would present their ideas about truth and morality, and reinforce their opinions with omnipotent deities who would, in a way, scare believers into acting accordingly.

III. As Pierre Hadot states in Philosophy as A Way of Life, “The Platonic sage would raise themselves by the life of their mind, which the Aristotelian sages raise themselves to the realm of the divine mind”. Although Aristotle does not address sagacity directly in any of his major works, in one recovered excerpt of Prorepticus, Aristotle begs the question: “what more accurate stand or measure of good things do we have than the sage [?]” in a work encouraging young people to study philosophy. As

the duty of the citizens of America to vote and vote wisely. We need to remember our role in government, if we want the government to remember theirs. How perfect would It be if our government was run according to Lao-tzu and his teachings in Tao-te Ching? Lao-tzu believed in the unseen