On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Andrzej Jaworski wrote:

I just want to say Hello to let you know that there are some serious entities watching you besides monads and FBI:-)

There has been a hell of a discussion recently about logos, languages and religion and I want to add to this.

First let me disassociate Haskell from Taoism which to may taste has left us in an unhealthy climate. It suffices to say that Taoism is a school of clever trics and cute aphorisms but without the slightest attempt to explain or generalize let alone produce an abstract idea or a system. That is why its wisdom is non transferable in spite of majority of humans desending from it. Haskell on the contrary is a minority school that implements abstract ideas for problem solving in the most transferable way to date, so that other languages look into it for their share. But don't worry, thay will choke becouse it is them who practice Taoizm. Playing too many tricks will eventually trick them, even if some are powerful enough to brainwash dicent professors to preach interoperability or the like. Every viable complexity needs a single underlying concept to survive, including you and the universe. Microsoft and the like excluding;-) Haskell has all that: consistency, transparency and self-contained concept.

I associate Haskell with Zen, due to one of my favorite dialogues: "If it's purely functional, how do you *do* anything?" "You don't ;-)" (Courtesy of Conal Elliott) Haskell and Zen both happen to be my favorites in their respective fields (and exactly which field that is for both is somewhat fuzzy) Luke

Andrzej Jaworski wrote:

First let me disassociate Haskell from Taoism which to may taste has left us in an unhealthy climate. It suffices to say that Taoism is a school of clever trics and cute aphorisms but without the slightest attempt to explain or generalize let alone produce an abstract idea or a system. That is why its wisdom is non transferable in spite of majority of humans desending from it.

Taoist religion in China is very much a popular religion, closely associated with festivals, weddings and magic tricks. As a popular religion, Taoism is indeed deeply compromised; but then again, so is Zen in Japan, Christianity in Europe and indeed, most popular religions in the place where they became popular. As a philosophy, Taoism is more concerned with doubt than knowledge; with humility than pride of understanding; of course it makes litte "attempt to explain or generalize". An essential notion in Taoism is that signs and symbols do not communicate the truth -- to appreciate Taoist practice, you must engage in the practice of Taoism for a spell. Thus it is in practical arts -- Chinese medicine, Taiji, strategy -- that one comes to appreciate the Way and its Power. -- Jason Dusek