The Tao of Socrates
Eastern Wisdom and The Birth of Western Philosophy
Stefan Schindler
This book argues that Socrates, Athenian citizen in Classical Greece, was a Taoist sage and Zen master. His life was a work of art, rooted in the art of detached engagement: Taoist Wu-wei and Buddhist Madhyamaka. Socrates was the offspring of a philosophic tradition stretching back a century and a half, spread across the eastern Mediterranean. Schindler introduces these Presocratic thinkers, examines the life and teachings of Socrates, and explores Plato as a mythologizing philosopher.
Taoism, Buddhism and Zen are introduced throughout the discourse, showing how Eastern Wisdom is reflected in The Birth of Western Philosophy. The adventure concludes with an exploration of the Greco-Buddhist insight that to be is to inter-be. The recovery of this idea overlaps with the quantum paradigm shift in contemporary physics, ecology and spirituality.
Stefan Schindler received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston College in 1975. Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Humanities Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he taught philosophy, psychology, education and religion from 1976 to 1990. In 1988, he was awarded the Boston Baha'i Peace Award. He lived in a Zen temple in Cambridge for a year; an echo of his three years as a child in Japan. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Schindler taught at The University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, The University of the Sciences, and Community College of Philadelphia.
Dr. Schindler is a Trustee of The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts. He wrote the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awards for Howard Zinn and John Lennon. With Justice Lewis Randa, he co-founded The National Registry for Conscience Objection, and co-wrote the Courage of Conscience Awards for Thich Nhat Hanh, Ram Dass, and the Dalai Lama.
Schindler's other book is America's Indochina Holocaust: The History and Matrix of The Vietnam War. Now living in Salem, Massachusetts, he is working on his next book, The Reawakening of Bicameral Mind.
197 Pages
ISBN:1-934849-51-0
ISBN13: 978-1-934849-51-4
