Heidegger and Asian Thought

by Graham Parkes

Book Overview

"In 12 excellent essays by scholars East and West, this collection explores the many dimensions of Heidegger's relation to Eastern thinking.... Because of the quality of the contributions, the eminence of the many contributors... this volume must be considered an indispensable reference on the subject. Highly recommended." --Choice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082481312X
• ISBN13: 9780824813123
• Release Date: September 1987
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

the connections between Heidegger and Eastern thought are more subtle than it appears

Furthermore, it has also been claimed that a number of elements within Heidegger's thought bear a close parallel to Eastern philosophical ideas, particularly with Zen Buddhism and Taoism. An account given by Paul Hsao (in Heidegger and Asian Thought) records a remark by Chang Chung-Yuan claiming that "Heidegger is the only Western Philosopher who not only intellectually understands but has intuitively grasped Taoist thought." According to Tomonubu Imamichi, the concept of Dasein was inspired -- although Heidegger remains silent on this -- by Okakura Kakuzo's concept of das-in-der-Welt-sein (being in the world) expressed in The Book of Tea to describe Zhuangzi's philosophy, which Imamichi's teacher had offered to Heidegger in 1919, after having studied with him the year before.[25] Some scholars interested in the relationships between Western philosophy and the history of ideas in Islam and Arabic philosophical medieval sources may also have been influenced by Heidegger's work.[26] ie Henry Corbin. On a supeficial level, Heidegger and the more common forms of Buddhism are at odds, but if one reaches a deeper level of understanding, one can see that it is indeed very true that phenomenology and Buddhist and Taoist thought illuminate each other in an extremely useful fashion. Previous reviewers seem to not actually have read this book or examined the issuses in it in depth.