NYT: Kung Fu for Philosophers

Hello,

The following article mentions two of my favourite thinkers, Zhuangzi
(Chuang Tse) and Richard Rorty, and as I can think of a few people
in this group who might find this interesting I thought to pass
this along:

    Kung Fu for Philosophers
    Peimin Ni, The New York Times, December 8, 2010,
    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/kung-fu-for-philosophers/

with this quote of note:

   "Confucius’s call for “rectification of names” — one must use
    words appropriately — is more a kung fu method for securing
    sociopolitical order than for capturing the essence of things,
    as “names,” or words, are placeholders for expectations of how
    the bearer of the names should behave and be treated."

I first mistakenly read this as "reification of names". But then
again, it's likewise easy to read "placeholder" for "proxy"...

...which reminds me once again how cool Topic Maps really are,
how truly avant garde was Steve, Eliot and Michel's thinking well
over a decade ago, and how thankful I am that we've managed (even
with all the difficulties) to come as far as we have, that it is
perhaps no surprise that the rest of the world hasn't cottoned on
to what the hell we're on about, this only typical of other
revolutionary innovations.

Then to bring me back to earth I read this on Eliot's blog, which
is very pertinent to what I'm dealing with right now:

   Norm Reconsiders DITA Specialization
   http://drmacros-xml-rants.blogspot.com/2010/09/norm-reconsiders-dita-specialization.html

Finally, this last week or so many of the messages on this list
have been quite enlightening, thank you all.

Murray (who is in a good mood for some strange reason)

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray10 at altheim dot com>                       = =  ===
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     ===  ===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk               = =  ===

       Boundless wind and moon - the eye within eyes,
       Inexhaustible heaven and earth - the light beyond light,
       The willow dark, the flower bright - ten thousand houses,
       Knock at any door - there's one who will respond.
                                       -- The Blue Cliff Record
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