Daoist Criticisms of Confucian Sacrificial Rites

Various passages in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, the two most important texts of ??philosophical Daoism,?? critically mock Confucian sacrificial rites. Perhaps the best known of these criticisms refers to a practice involving straw dogs (Laozi 5, Zhuangzi 14). This article will attempt to expose the philosophical dimensions of these passages that show, in my reading, how Daoist philosophy looks at such sacrificial rituals as a sort of evidence of the Confucian misconceptions of time, of death and life, and of cosmic and social order.     

Incongruent Names: A Theme in the History of Chinese Philosophy

This essay is meant to shed light on a discourse that spans centuries and includes different voices. To be aware of such trans-textual resonances can add a level of historical understanding to the reading of philosophical texts. Specifically, we intend to demonstrate how the notion of the ineffable Dao 道, prominently expressed in the Daodejing 道德經, informs a long discourse on incongruent names (ming 名) in distinction to a mainstream paradigm that demands congruity between names and what they designate. Thereby, we trace the development of the idea of the ineffable Dao quite differently from modern mystical interpretations. We show how, in an early Chinese context, it first gives rise to a sociopolitical critique of the incongruity underlying socially constructed names in the Zhuangzi 莊子, then to a discourse on the incongruity between moral virtues and names in Xuanxue 玄學 philosophy, and eventually to Sengzhao’s 僧肇 claim that a perceived congruence of names with things does not entail actual congruence between names and reality.     

Subjectivity and intersubjectivity,subject and person

Continental Philosophy Review -     

Gedanken zur Psychotherapie heute

Psychotherapie und Psychopharmakologie teilen das Anliegen, dem Menschen zu helfen und seine Integrit?t wieder herzustellen. Symptomreduktion ist die Grundlage zum Wiedererlangen einer angemessenen Lebensqualit?t, reicht aber als alleinige Ma?nahme oft nicht aus. W?hrend Psychopharmaka gezielt in der Hirntopographie und im Hirnstoffwechsel ansetzen, beeinflussen Gespr?che verschiedene Hirnregionen in integrierender Weise.