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Freedom and God: The Meeting of East and West
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Extract
Speaking for the theology of the East, Masao Abe says: ‘I do not see the ontological ground on which (in the West) being has priority over non-being’. Professor Abe is speaking of Tillich's assertion (in The Courage To Be, p. 34, 40) that there is an ‘ontological priority of being over nonbeing’, but Abe's question is more or less directed to the whole Western metaphysical tradition and illustrates the fundamental philosophical point at issue between the East and West. Nonbeing can be ruled out of consideration as Parmenides and Wittgenstein have done (what cannot be said clearly should not be spoken about). Or, like Plato and Tillich, being can be said to embrace both itself and nonbeing, even if this is not explained in detail very clearly. Yet the challenge of the East still stands: What embraces both being and nonbeing may not be ‘Being’ but ‘that which is neither being nor non-being’. If the East and the West are to meet metaphysically, we can no longer simply assume the priority of being over nonbeing. We must begin by considering the alternative of the East and then justify any choice between competing first principles by prior metaphysical argument.
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References
page 421 note 1 ‘Non-being and Mu: The Metaphysical Nature of Negativity in the East and the West’, Religious Studies, Vol. 11, Number 2, June 1975, p. 181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 422 note 1 ‘Non-being and Mu: The Metaphysical Nature of Negativity in the East and the West’, Religious Studies, Vol. 11, Number 2, June, 1975, p. 184.Google Scholar
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page 423 note 1 ‘Non-being and Mu: The Metaphysical Nature of Negativity in the East and the West’, Religious Studies, Vol. 11, Number 2, June, 1975, Abe, p. 185.Google Scholar
page 424 note 1 ‘Non-being and Mu: The Metaphysical Nature of Negativity in the East and the West’, Religious Studies, Vol. 11, Number 2, June, 1975, p. 186.Google Scholar
page 424 note 2 Ibid., p. 187.
page 424 note 3 Ibid., p. 187.
page 424 note 4 Ibid., p. 191.
page 425 note 1 ‘Non-being and Mu: The Metaphysical Nature of Negativity in the East and the West’, Religious Studies, Vol. 11, Number 2, June, 1975, Abe, p. 191.Google Scholar
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page 427 note 1 ‘The self-understanding of man in Zen Buddhism’, p. 12.
page 427 note 2 Ibid., p. 12.
page 428 note 1 ‘The self-understanding of man in Zen Buddhism’, p. 20.