Daoist Resonances in Heidegger: Exploring a Forgotten Debt(Daoism and the Human Experience)

East Asian imagery resonates throughout Martin Heidegger's writings. In this exploration of the connections between Daoism and his thought, an international team of scholars consider why the Daodejing and Zhuangzi were texts he returned to repeatedly and the extent Heidegger adhered to Daoism's core doctrines. They discuss how Daoist thought provided him with a new perspective, equipping him with images, concepts, and meanings that enabled him to continue his questioning of the nature of being. Exploring the environment, language, death, temporality, aesthetics, and race from the groundlessness of non-being, oneness, and the Way, they illustrate how these themes reverberate with ontological, spiritual, and epistemological potential. A lesson in the art of Daoist and cross-cultural ways of thinking, this collection marks the first sustained analysis of the influence of classical Daoism on a major 20th-century German philosopher.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part 1: Revisiting Heidegger and Daoism 1. Thoughts on the Way: Being and Time via Laozi and Zhuangzi, Graham Parkes (University of Vienna, Austria) 2. Heidegger's Daoist Phenomenology, Jay Goulding (York University, Canada) 3. The Simple Onefold of Dao and Being: Reading Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Heidegger in Light of Interality, Geling Shang (Grand Valley State University, USA) Part 2: Existence and the Arts 4. Dao of Death, Jason M. Wirth (Seattle University, USA) 5. Thing and World in Laozi and Heidegger, Eric S. Nelson (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong) 6. Zhuangzi, Heidegger, and the Self-Revealing Being of Sculpture, David Chai (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Part 3: Language and Identity 7. Rivers to the East: Heidegger's Lectures on Hölderlin as Prolegomena for Daoist Engagements, Daniel Fried (University of Alberta, Canada) 8. Thinking Through Silence: (Non-) Language in Heidegger and Classical Daoism, Steven Burik (Singapore Management University, Singapore) 9. The Politics of Uselessness: On Heidegger's Reading of the Zhuangzi, Fabian Heubel (Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Taiwan) 10. “We have been Schooled by the Cabin haven't We?” Heidegger and Daoism in the Provinces, Mario Wenning (Loyola University Andalusia, Spain) Index

About the Author :
David Chai is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Review :
There were three legendary philosophical meetings with Laozi in history. The first one was the meeting of Confucius with Laozi. The second was that of Buddha with Laozi, while the third one and the latest one should be that of Heidegger with Laozi and Daoism. Papers collected here in this book are devoted to an in-depth discussion of Heidegger's relationship with Laozi and philosophical Daoism. It is another significant step toward a thoughtful dialogue between the two great cultural traditions in the west and east after the publication of Graham Parkes's book “Heidegger and Asian Thought” more than 30 years ago. Important themes such as “thing,” “language,” “death,” “identity” “art,” “interality,” and “nationhood” etc. are explored and discussed from a comparative perspective. They will stimulate readers to deep and to further their understanding of both Heidegger and Daoism. The time is ripe for Daoist Resonances in Heidegger. The chapters in this book are profound explorations of the explicit and implicit connections between Heidegger's thought and the two foundational texts of the Daoist tradition-connections that are replete with vital contributions to our still dawning age of cross-cultural philosophy. A pivotal work in the disciplines of Chinese and comparative philosophy ... This detailed analysis enriches our understanding of both philosophies and underscores the importance of cross-cultural philosophical engagement.