Teaching Daoism As Philosophy: - Teaching Thinking Through Controversy

I - propose to consider chapter 1 - of the famous, classic, and foundational Daoist text 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2Dao De Jing1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT20RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2, attributed to Laozi, in order to enable a nonexpert to negotiate the subject of Daoism in a global philosophy context, and to further enhance the teaching of philosophy by introducing and emphasizing at least some of the controversies that inevitably surround interpretation of a classical set of texts and ideas. This forces students to see through simplistic dichotomies and form subtler conclusions, on their own, and I - suggest that this is what the teaching of philosophy should always involve, to be considered philosophy.1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2