DE Weekly: Maybe, Watts, & the Parable of the Chinese Farmer

Last week, I shared some ideas from Taoism, the ancient Chinese philosophy that emphasizes living in harmony with all forces in the universe throughout your life. I then connected the ideas to the Existentialism of the twentieth century. This week, I would like to highlight a writer who drew from the former to inspire the latter: Alan Watts.

Alan Watts was a British and American writer who called himself a “philosophical entertainer” (a rather apt moniker, I might add). He made his name popularizing the aforementioned Taoist philosophy for Western audiences, as well as Buddhist, Hindu, and other Eastern ideas.