What Can't be Said

Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20004554
AutoresYasuo Deguchi (0000-0002-6297-1772, Kyoto University), Jay L Garfield (Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Buddhist Studies, Smith College), Graham Priest (0000-0002-0248-1253, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Graduate Center, City University of New York), Robert H Sharf (D. H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley)
Año2021
Fecha de publicación2021-02-18
Open AccessNo
TipoBOOK
RevistaWhat Can't Be Said (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialOxford University PressNew York (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780197526187.001.0001
OpenAlexW4234434212
Open LibraryOL34689676M
ISBN9780197526187
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas11

Paradox drives a good deal of philosophy in every tradition. In the Indian and Western traditions, there is a tendency among many (but not all) philosophers to run from contradiction and paradox. If and when a contradiction appears in a theory, it is regarded as a sure sign that something has gone amiss. This aversion to paradox commits them, knowingly or not, to the view that reality must be consistent. In East Asia, however, philosophers have reacted to paradox differently. Many East Asian philosophers—both in the Daoist and the Buddhist traditions—have openly embraced paradox. They have taken compelling arguments for contradictory positions to suggest that the world is—at least in some respects, and often in very deep respects—inconsistent, and that our best theories of the world will therefore be inconsistent. This book is an initial survey of the writings of some influential East Asian thinkers who were committed to paradox, and for good reason. Their acceptance of contradiction allowed them to develop important insights that evaded those who consider paradox out of bounds

Buddhism · China · Contradiction · East Asia · Epistemology · Political science · Sign (mathematics) · Theology · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy