LANGUAGE AND EMPTINESS IN CHAN BUDDHISM AND THE EARLY HEIDEGGER
Journal of Chinese Philosophy
Volume 37, Issue 3, September 2010, pages 472–492,
In the context of the early Heidegger and Hongzhou Chan Buddhism, I argue that it is meaningful to speak of emptiness... more In the context of the early Heidegger and Hongzhou Chan Buddhism, I argue that it is meaningful to speak of emptiness and the nothing by focusing on their performative manner (how) as well as their philosophical content (what). Emptiness is not an entity but the practice of emptying and the nothing is an experience of the uncanniness that discloses being’s openness. Both involve clearing and enacting a way. Although distinct, I conclude that Heidegger and Chan indicate strategies of self-transformation within the worldly immanence of everyday life through strategies of: (1) aporia, paradox, reversal, shock, and questionability; (2) living words and gestures that dereify habitual and conventional structures and practices to become responsive to things; and (3) the perplexing transformative language of nothing.
Review of Wei Zhang, What Is Enlightenment: Can China Answer Kant's Question?
Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Volume 38, Issue 4, December 2011, pages 666–669.
Kant and China: Aesthetics, Race, and Nature
Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Volume 38, Issue 4, December 2011, pages 509–525.
In this paper, I examine Kant’s questionable interpretation of China and its “mysticism,” his problematic... more In this paper, I examine Kant’s questionable interpretation of China and its “mysticism,” his problematic racial-aesthetics, and how Kant articulated an aesthetics and ethics of nature in the Critique of Judgment that is evocative of both early Daoist approaches to nature and Chinese aesthetics. By stressing human receptiveness to free natural beauty, Kant proves there is more than the human domination of nature as either: (1) a constituted product or (2) mere objects of use and exploitation. In the core of the third Critique, it appears as if the sublime reveals nature to be more than the human world only in the end for it to be lesser than human dignity. Kant’s sublime risks endangering the person while disclosing the possibility of reaffirming the dignity of the individual in relation to the natural world. If that dignity is not affirmed, the person is overwhelmed in the adventurous or the grotesque. In the concluding section, I discuss the differences between Kant and early Daoism by contrasting Kant's claim that the awe and terror of the sublime is the possibility of a dignity and vocation that transcends the world with Zhuangzi's attention to an immanent attunement and ethos in accord with the natural world.
The Yijing and Philosophy: From Leibniz to Derrida
Journal of Chinese Philosophy 38:3, Sept. 2011, 377-396.
The Yijing has been persistently approached in the west through conflicting interpretive strategies. While Leibniz saw... more The Yijing has been persistently approached in the west through conflicting interpretive strategies. While Leibniz saw in it an expression of and source for genuine philosophy and the new logic and mathematics, Hegel rejected it as a work of abstract picture thinking that was simultaneously too formal and empirical. Neither Leibniz nor Hegel understood the Yijing’s earlier history as the Zhouyi or its complex transformations in Chinese traditions from the early Confucian interpretation emphasizing its ethical character to the metaphysical systematizations of late Neo-Confucianism. Yet their discussions indicate two distinct ways of addressing how to interpret others and other cultures in relation to epistemic issues. The question of interpretation, and hermeneutics as its art, involves issues of how to interpret others through signs and artifacts and how to interpret the natural world. This raises the question of philosophy itself, whether it is exclusively European as Hegel and his critic Derrida concur or whether it has a more universal import as suggested by Leibniz’s approach to the Yijing and Chinese thought.
Leibniz and China: Religion, Hermeneutics, and Enlightenment
“Leibniz and China: Religion, Hermeneutics, and Enlightenment.” Religion in the Age of Enlightenment (RAE), vol. 1 (2009), 277-300.
Leibniz’s engagement with China is informed by his use of the principles of charity and understanding better. Leibniz... more Leibniz’s engagement with China is informed by his use of the principles of charity and understanding better. Leibniz defines justice as the “charity of the wise,” and uses this principle not only in his practical philosophy but to interpret the statements of others in such a way as to maximize their coherence and meaning and minimize undue suspicion. Appealing to the example of St. Paul, Leibniz uses the principle of charity to critically interpret Chinese beliefs as consistent with natural theology and even “true Christianity.” He rejected the suspicion of authors such as Malebranche who interpreted the Chinese as immoral, irrational, and irreligious. The second principle of “understanding better” is based on the early church fathers’ reinterpretation of Hebrew and Greek texts as revealing Christian truths. The maxim of “understanding the author better than he understood himself” seems to coincide with the principle of charity. Yet, even though it can be said to preserve truth and maximize agreement, it threatens to transform charity toward others into assimilation to oneself.
Heidegger on East-West Dialogue: Anticipating the Event (Review)
Review of Lin Ma, Heidegger on East-West Dialogue: Anticipating the Event (Routledge, 2008). Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2009, 2009.03.35
Future of Orthodoxy in the Near East: An Educational Perspective
Nahas, G. N. (September 10-12, 2010). Future of Orthodoxy in the Near East: An Educational Perspective. In Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Hofgeismar. Germany.
Near East is the geographical region covered by the Patriarchate of Antioch.... more
Near East is the geographical region covered by the Patriarchate of Antioch. Trying to foresee the future in this region is not an easy exercise considering how much the political scene has been changing in this region starting with the first decades of the 20th Century. This region has known, since the 7th Century the co-existence of the three Abrahamic religions while its political profile was and is forever changing. Churches of the region had to live under different regimes and the political links that some confessions had with the rulers influenced a lot the inter-religious dialogue and the peaceful co-existence of the believers.
Trying to focus on the experience of Orthodoxy in the Near East is an important exercise because the Orthodox Church existed in the region since the 1st Century and has had a continuous presence since then. Focusing on the educational aspect of this presence is a means to underline how this Church tried, over centuries, to live its mission in the world, and to see how we can build on this experience to prepare for the future in a positive, open, and dynamic way. After a quick overview of the specificity of Orthodoxy in this region, and of the specific and broad understanding of the term education, this presentation will focus on the link between these two folders in preparing for the future, by answering this main question: How will Orthodoxy continue to witness in the Near East, bringing to the region peace, hope, and a message of love?
This presentation will answer these questions by stressing the fact that the future of Orthodoxy in the Near East, while the 21st century seems to be a turning point for the whole region, is not only a social presence of a confessional group in midst of other groups. It is the witness for specificity, a service to be rendered to all communities, a way to preserve God’s will.
Download (.pdf) “Del la momia y el esqueleto. Crítica intercultural a la enseñanza de la filosofía en América latina”
Utopia hat einen Ort. Beiträge für eine interkulturelle Welt aus vier Kontinenten, Steffens y Meutharath (Edit.), IKO, Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Mein / London, 2006, pp.95-106
“Des-encuentros en la cotidianidad. Rutina, Miedo y Conflicto”
Alltagsleben: Ort des Austauschs oder der neuien Kolonialisiegung zwischen Nord und Süd (Vida cotidiana: Lugar de intercambio o de nueva colonización entre el norte y el sur), Tomo 31, Mainz Verlag, Alemania, 2010, pp.203-210.
