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Yet, I did not learn these percepts or concepts from Western philosophicals. I learned these through 81 poems from approximately 2600 years past. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle seem to have an Eastern trinity in balance; Lao Tzu, Cuang Tzu and Confucius within China.
Since, exploration into Western philosophical realm always leads me back to the simplicity of Tao. Universal maxims of mortality and values shall always rise and ebb regardless the source.
I understand Rand had knowledge of Socratic constructs, that of Neitzsche and Kant, Locke and Bastiat as foundational.
Perhaps a decade past I read The Objectivist's Ethics. It meshes cleanly with the Eastern. I tried to tear it apart and disprove ..... more fool me. I found more validity in both works. I only found two shortcomings with Rand; that of her lack of first hand experience whilst expressing things of "Nature" (I grew up field and stream - farming, foraging, forestry and fishing - first hand experience) and that The Objectivist's Ethics lacked the incorporation of the emotional context of "I Care" and it's necessary extension of empathy. If I do not care for self and have depth of that care resulting in empathy towards others I do not have the base for objective values and evaluation of my life.
The following poems are an interpretation of Tao published in 1944 by Witter Bynner; The Way Of Life According To Lao Tzu. Bynner spent many years with a Chinese linguist laboring of the work. I had "ticked" off about ten towards response toward your posting, and then cool weather maifest and demanded I get to my garden and outside chores.
Enjoy
1
Existence is beyond the power of words
To define:
Terms may be used
But are none of them absolute.
In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no words,
Words came out of the womb of matter;
And whether a man dispassionately
Sees to the core of life
Or passionately
Sees the surface,
The core and the surface
Are essentially the same,
Words making them seem different
Only to express appearance.
If name be needed, wonder names them both:
From wonder into wonder
Existence opens.
2
People through finding something beautiful
Think something else unbeautiful,
Through finding one man fit
Judge another unfit.
Life and death, though stemming from each other, seem to conflict as
stages of change,
Difficult and easy as phases of achievement,
Long and short as measures of contrast,
High and low as degrees of relation;
But, since the varying of tones gives music to a voice
And what is the was of what shall be,
The sanest man
Sets up no deed,
Lays down no law,
Takes everything that happens as it comes,
As something to animate, not to appropriate,
To earn, not to own,
To accept naturally without self-importance:
If you never assume importance
You never lose it.
3
It is better not to make merit a matter of reward
Lest people conspire and contend,
Not to pile up rich belongings
Lest they rob,
Not to excite by display
Lest they covet.
A sound leader's aim
Is to open people's hearts,
Fill their stomachs,
Calm their wills,
Brace their bones
And so to clarify their thoughts and cleanse their needs
That no cunning meddler could touch them:
Without being forced, without strain or constraint,
Good government comes of itself.
This would be representative of discernment between the US Constitution and all the regulatory Statute development, as example.