Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy, livre ebook

Carl Olson is Professor of Religious Studies at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. His previous books include The Indian Renouncer and Postmodern Poison: A Cross-Cultural Encounter and The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade: A Search for the Centre.

Carl Olson is Professor of Religious Studies at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. His previous books include The Indian Renouncer and Postmodern Poison: A Cross-Cultural Encounter and The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade: A Search for the Centre.

This book examines and compares the philosophical positions of various postmodern thinkers and Zen Buddhist philosophers on: language and play; modes of thinking; skepticism and doubt; self and other; time and death; nihilism and metaphysics; and the conception of the end of philosophy. The Zen thinkers dealt with are Dogen and Nishitani, and the Western thinkers are Derrida, Lacan, Heidegger, Lyotard, Foucault, Deleuze and Guatarri, Kristeva, and Levinas. Although each share similar notions concerning the shortcomings of representational thinking, major differences still exist. By clarifying these differences, Olson counters the tendency to overtly assert or covertly imply that postmodern and Zen philosophies are moving in the same direction. Some postmodern thinkers and Zen Buddhist philosophers share common philosophical ground with regard to a mutual philosophical attack and attempt to overcome the perceived shortcomings of the representational mode of thinking that conceives of the mind like a mirror and assumes a correspondence between appearance and reality that is supported by a metaphysical structure.

Preface
1. Signing In
Eye to Eye
A Work of Art
Zen Buddhism and Postmodernism
Comparative Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Dialogue
2. Language, Disruption, and Play
Words and No Words
Disruption
Ludic Encounters and Dialogues
Performative Language
Silence
Concluding Remarks
3. Ways of Thinking
Withdrawal
The Way
The Call
Waiting
Releasement
Concluding Remarks
4. Radical Skepticism and Doubt
Necessity for Methodological Doubt
Genealogy and Difference
Deconstruction
Schizoanalysis
Semanalysis
Concluding Remarks
5. The Body
Body and World
Body and Consciousness
Body and Perception
Time and Body
Body, Limitation, and Boundary Symbol
6. The Self and Other
Presence and Absence
Decentered
Kenosis and Zazen
Altarity
Concluding Remarks
7. Time and Death
The Nature of Time
Being and Time
Experience of Time
Death Divine
Concluding Remarks
8. Nihilism and Metaphysics
An Apology for Nihilism
Reaction of Nishitani to Nihilism
End of Philosophy
Différance, Difference, and Buddha-Nature
Concluding Remarks
9. Signing Out
The Present Simulacrum
Past Dialogical Summary
Results of Dialogue for Representational Thinking
Zen Through the Prism of Postmodern Philosophy
The End of a Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index