Heidegger on East-West Dialogue (Studies in Philosophy) Book

This book traces a most obscure and yet most intriguing theme concealed in Heideggerâ??s thinking and work, which has hitherto not yet been made the focus of a thorough and sustained investigation: that is, the emergence and course of Heideggerâ??s interest in East Asian thought and of his reflection on East-West dialogue. Lin Ma covers such complex issues as Heideggerâ??s thoughts on language, Being, technology, the other beginning, and the journey abroad, with a view to their implications for East-West dialogue. It reveals the significance of his remarks on the early Greekâ??s confrontation with the Asiatic, and presents contextualized interpretations of his fleeting references to the topic of East-West dialogue and of his encounter with the Daodejing. Finally, it delves into A dialogue on language and exposes the strains and tensions that accompany Heideggerâ??s extension of dialogue and the Same, the two notions central to his thought, to the question of East-West dialogue. In the end, Lin Ma concludes that Heideggerâ??s fundamental concerns and philosophical orientations as articulated in terms of the history of Being and the other beginning have restricted him from engaging more seriously with the irresolvable and yet enduring issue of East-West dialogue.