Philosophy is necessary until one has experienced Tao...then philosophy and intellectual understanding are no longer needed. When we become an Uncarved Block...or Winnie the Pooh...we just 'are' in the world perfectly without 'trying to understand or intellectualize it."

Anyways, it's not proven that Lao Tzu actually wrote the Tao Te Ching; he may have but there are other theories as to its inception...namely that a lot of different people wrote and added to it. We can't truly know this nor does it really matter.