Tao and Method: A Reasoned Approach to the Tao Te Ching (Chinese Philosophy Culture) - Softcover

LaFargue, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 079141602X ISBN 13: 9780791416020

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1994

Synopsis

While the Tao Te Ching has been translated and commented on countless times, interpretations are seldom based on systematic theoretical treatment of the problems of interpretive method posed by this enigmatic classic. Beginning with a critical discussion of modern hermeneutics including treatments of Hirsch, Gadamer, and Derrida, this book applies methods developed in biblical studies to the Tao Te Ching. The following chapters discuss systematically four areas necessary to recovering the Tao Te Ching 's original meaning: its social background; the semantic structure of the brief aphorisms contained in the book; the concrete background of the more cosmic sayings; and the origin and genre of the 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching. These essays propose relatively new theories in each of these areas, leading to a new approach to the interpretation of the text. This approach is illustrated in the translation and the detailed commentary on each chapter.

About this title

About the Author

Michael LaFargue is the author of Language and Gnosis and teaches at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 079141602X
• ISBN 13: 9780791416020
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 658