Phenomenology Kitten—Breeze From The East

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On this day in Round and Square History 
30 September 2012—Academic Autobiography: Tristes Tropiques (d)
30 September 2011—Fieldnotes From History: Greasy Fingers

[a] Appearing to consciousness RF

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the 
understanding,and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

                             —Immanuel Kant, 1781

We looked yesterday at the clearly "phenomenological" focus of Wang Yangming. 

[b] Temple RF         哲 Look it up here

But here's the deal. There's a whole bunch of this "phenomenon/a stuff" coursing through Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traditions. We'll spend a little time thinking about these, and then return to the West, which has been much more clearly ambivalent about the whole idea that we do not hold objective views of the world around us.

And that brings us to Martin Heidegger's fascination, bafflement, and, well, rivet-ed-ness when it comes to "Eastern" thought (mostly, for him, Japanese). And here is an interesting little note. At least one Japanese scholar has pegged Heidegger's concept of "Being-in-the-World" (Dasein) to the Japanese classic The Book of Tea.

Heidegger in Japan 1:38

We'll explore Dasein further as we proceed, but let's just treasure even the possible connection between Heidegger and Japanese Zen thought.

[c] Classic RF

[Originally posted on September 5, 2014]