Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism
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- Synopsis
-
Being and Ambiguity is a brilliant work of philosophy, filled with insights, jokes, and topical examples.
Professor Ziporyn draws on the works of such Western thinkers as Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, and Hegel, but develops his main argument from Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. This important work introduces Tiantai Buddhism to the reader and demonstrates its relevance to profound philosophical issues.Ziporyn argues that we can make both of the claims below simultaneously:This book is about everything. It contains the answers to all philosophical problems which ever shall exist. This book is all claptrap. It is completely devoid of objective validity of any kind.These claims are not contradictory. Rather, they state the same thing in two different ways. To be objective truth is to be subjective claptrap, and vise versa. All interchanges of any kind - conversations, daydreams, sensations - are not only about something but also about everything.Thus, this book concerns itself with no less than the nature of what is and what it means for something to be what it is. It provides a new approach to the basic Western philosophical and psychological issues of identity, determinacy, being, desire, boredom, addiction, love and truth.ems identified, investigated, and resolved-resolved at least in a manner that measures up to the title: Being and Amibguity. But whether it's being or non-being that bothers you, this book has your number, your 'social security' number to be exact, since one of the subtle charms (terrors?) of this book is its commitment to drive philosophy through the carwash of mundane reality, soaking the big German/Buddhist topics in the hot-again-cold-again Real of being-for-the-Other, and the numberless other harrowing tasks that normal life requires. A must read for anyone interested in metaphysical sodomy."-Alan Cole, Author of Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature"Ziporyn carries out an audacious though experiment whose starting point lies in the classical Tiantai idea that being is fundamentally ambiguous. If this idea is valid, he argues, then no philosophical statement can be profound without being vapid. Fully embracing this implication, Ziporyn leads the reader on a fascinating adventure in which Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, and many others are seen through the lens of Neo-Tiantai ethics."-Andrew Cutrofello, Author of The Owl at Dawn: A Sequel to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
- Copyright:
- 2004
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 428 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780812699272
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780812695427
- Publisher:
- Open Court
- Date of Addition:
- 10/29/15
- Copyrighted By:
- Carus Publishing Company
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Religion and Spirituality, Philosophy
- Submitted By:
- N/A
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.