- Tytuł:
- Koniec filozofii” na Zachodzie a buddyzm
- Autorzy:
- Woźniak, Cezary
- Powiązania:
- https://bibliotekanauki.pl/articles/641142.pdf
- Data publikacji:
- 2004
- Wydawca:
- Uniwersytet Jagielloński. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
- Opis:
- “THE END OF PHILOSOPHY” IN THE WEST AND BUDDHISMHilary Putnam says: “Whether we want to be there or not, science has put us in the position of having to live without foundations. It was shocking when Nietzsche said this, but today it is commonplace; our historical position – and no end to it is in sight – is that of having to philosophize without »foundation«”.The article discusses the issue of a lack of foundations in both Western thought as well as in Buddhism. In its first part, the author presents the major motifs which recur in Western thought (among others, those of Being, God, truth, subjectivity). The subsequent part of the article is devoted to postmodernist philosophy which, generally speaking, overturns the myth of presence and discovers a lack of foundations. Derrida’s philosophy, or more broadly speaking, postmodernism, is sometimes referred to as the philosophy of the “end of philosophy”. On the one hand, deconstruction is still regarded as philosophy if it plays an exposing role in comparison with the uncritical and dogmatic metaphysics of presence, revealing the structure of its constituent oppositions, the antilogocentrism of writing, and even its own entanglements in metaphysics. However, on the other hand, it might be regarded as the end of philosophy, as it undermines the very possibility of philosophical discourse, based on a metaphysical and logocentric foundation. At the same time, in postmodernism, the senses derived from the metaphysics of presence, such as: subject, truth, culture, become obliterated. In this context, Derrida makes use of the metaphor of the desert. Keji Nishitani, a Japanese philosopher belonging to the Kyoto School, is of the opinion that Western nihilism, in a way, stops at this point, failing to expound on the philosophical and experimental consequences of the discovery of a lack of foundations. For there exists yet another, nihilistic possibility of experiencing the above-mentioned lack of foundations. However, this option requires moving beyond the Western perspective. Whereas, on the whole, the West lacks the tradition of cognitive work based on tangible and concrete experience. Certain trends in Christian mystical philosophy may be looked upon as possible exceptions in this context. Whereas psychology and psychoanalysis are not able to profoundly transform our awareness. Without a doubt, a cognitive tradition which relies on direct experience, exists in Asia, to mention for instance, the classic Indian yoga, Taoism and particularly Buddhism, whose intellectual achievements make it a match of the Western intellectual tradition. Confronted with a lack of our own tradition, we have to reach out for such methods of work with our consciousness which go beyond the subject-object dualism and move farther towards what is situated beyond the horizon of the above-mentioned dualism.According to the author of the article, a special role in the discovery of this possibility in the West, was played by Martin Heidegger. In a similar way as it happens in postmodernism, Heidegger discovered a lack foundations in reality; yet he pointed out to the possibility of experiencing it in a non-nihilistic, extra-conceptual way. It seems that Heidegger’s other great achievement was an in-depth analysis of the foundations of Western philosophy, referred to him as a destruction of metaphysics; the outcome of this approach was an opening to other, non-nihilistic understanding and experience of lack of foundations, as it happens in Buddhism. According to Heidegger’s conception, one observes from the very beginning a certain moving away from the ecological perspective towards a reflection on unconcealment (aletheia), the essence of Being (Seyn), clearing (Lichtung), openness (Offene) and finally on appropriation or enowning (Ereignis), while his reasoning which evidently aims at abandoning the sphere of metaphysics, in many instances, seems to enter into a dialogue with the Eastern thought. A good example of this may be the fact that a well-known German specialist on Buddhist religion, Herbert V. Guenther, reaches out for Heidegger’s concept of Being, when he attempts to translate the term “foundation” (gzhi), so important in Tibetan Buddhism, into the language of the Western culture.In Heidegger’s paper Science and Reflection (Nauka i namysł) (1958), one comes across a statement that the dialogue between East and West is unavoidable. According to the author, the dialogue between East and West is unavoidable and may contribute to saving man from the dangerous situation in which the character of his existence is determined by technology. Yet, it seems that today it is still difficult to talk about any major impact of the Eastern thought on the philosophical culture of the Western world. The above impact is probably most easily noticeable within the sphere of cognitive science or else within the philosophy of the mind, where the contemporary methods of its research may be referred to the theory and meditation practice of the mind as they function in the eastern tradition, and particularly in Buddhism
- Źródło:
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Studia Religiologica; 2004, 37
0137-2432
2084-4077 - Pojawia się w:
- Studia Religiologica
- Dostawca treści:
- Biblioteka Nauki
Artykuł