Heidegger, Rorty, And the Easte Thinkers: A Hermeneutics of Cross-cultural Understanding (Suny Series in Chinese Philosophy & Culture)

by: Wei Zhang (Author)

Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Edition: Annotated

Publication Date: 2006/3/16

Language: English

Print Length: 127 pages

ISBN-10: 0791467511

ISBN-13: 9780791467510

Book Description

Wei Zhang joins the ongoing hermeneutic quest for understanding and appropriating the East-West encounter and cross-cultural engagement by exploring Martin Heidegger’s and Richard Rorty’s cross-cultural encounters with Easte thinkers. Zhang begins by examining Rorty’s correspondence with Indian philosopher Anindita N. Balslev, outlining their debate about the discipline of comparative philosophy and curriculum reform, as well as the nature or origin of philosophy itself. She then focuses on the dialogue between Heidegger and a Japanese professor conceing the nature of human language and discusses whether Heidegger’s view of language allows for a true understanding between East and West or whether it admits only misunderstanding and prejudice are possible. Finally, the author presents a conceptual dialogue with Heidegger’s primary text on hermeneutics and phenomenology, Ontology—The Hermeneutics of Facticity. Utilizing the dialogues and correspondence between Heidegger, Rorty, and the Easte thinkers as textual examples, Zhang deconstructs and recovers layers of misconceptions of the various interpretations of the East-West encounter.

About the Author

Wei Zhang joins the ongoing hermeneutic quest for understanding and appropriating the East-West encounter and cross-cultural engagement by exploring Martin Heidegger’s and Richard Rorty’s cross-cultural encounters with Easte thinkers. Zhang begins by examining Rorty’s correspondence with Indian philosopher Anindita N. Balslev, outlining their debate about the discipline of comparative philosophy and curriculum reform, as well as the nature or origin of philosophy itself. She then focuses on the dialogue between Heidegger and a Japanese professor conceing the nature of human language and discusses whether Heidegger’s view of language allows for a true understanding between East and West or whether it admits only misunderstanding and prejudice are possible. Finally, the author presents a conceptual dialogue with Heidegger’s primary text on hermeneutics and phenomenology, Ontology—The Hermeneutics of Facticity. Utilizing the dialogues and correspondence between Heidegger, Rorty, and the Easte thinkers as textual examples, Zhang deconstructs and recovers layers of misconceptions of the various interpretations of the East-West encounter.