The End of Comparative Philosophy and the Task of Comparative Thinking: Heidegger, Derrida, and Daoism

by Steven Burik

Overview

How do differences in language influence comparative philosophy? Although the Orientalism famously described by Edward Said is rare today, Steven Burik maintains that comparative philosophy often subtly privileges one tradition over another since certain conceptual schemes are so embedded in Western languages that it is difficult not to revert to them. Arguing for a new approach that acknowledges how theory and practice cannot be separated in comparative philosophical endeavors, Burik provides nonmetaphysical, deconstructionist readings of Heidegger and Derrida and uses these to give a new reading of classical Daoism. The ideas of language advanced therein can aid the project of comparative philosophy specifically, and philosophies generally, in trying to overcome ways of thinking that have dominated Western philosophy for twenty-five hundred years and still frustrate intercultural encounters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438427423
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	07/02/2010
Series:	SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	238
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Steven Burik teaches philosophy at Singapore Management University and also at the Center for American Education, Broward College, Singapore.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Heidegger and the Other Commencement 

Heidegger’s Greek Connection
anaximander
parmenides
heraclitus

Heidegger and the Poets
poetry and thinking
poetry and language
hölderlin, the foreign, and translation

Heidegger and the “East”
early heidegger and comparative philosophy
later heidegger and comparative philosophy
Concluding Heidegger

2. Derrida: Otherness, Context, and Openness

Deconstructing the Ideas Behind Metaphysics
misreading derrida
beyond heidegger?

Language, Text, and Translation in Derrida

Derrida in Comparative Philosophy
identity and openness
derrida’s hints at different cultures
“the other is already there, irreducibly.”

Concluding Derrida

3. Rereading Daoism; The Other Way

Metaphysical Readings of Daoist Philosophy
The Metaphysical Tradition and Comparison

The Possibility of Difference
interpretations of classical chinese language

Inconstancy of Dao 道: No Transcendence Necessary
inside&outside: the gateway (men 門)

Concluding Daoism

4. Thinking, Philosophy, and Language: Comparing Heidegger, Derrida, and Classical Daoism

Metaphysics, Difference, and Comparisons
difference and comparison
metaphysics and comparison

Thinking and Philosophy

Heidegger and Daoism
derrida and daoism

Language in Comparison
“Beyond” The Inversion of Opposites
Ethical and Political Implications
Concluding the Comparison
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"…Burik's book is an important contribution to contemporary East-West philosophic dialogue." — Philosophy East & West

"Steven Burik's The End of Comparative Philosophy and the Task of Comparative Thinking is a daring and imaginative essay in re-reading Daoism, particularly the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, based on a philosophy of language deriving from Heidegger and Derrida." — International Journal for Philosophy of Religion

From the Publisher