Following a remark by Charles Taylor, I take the problem of “understanding the other” to be “the great challenge of this century, both for politics and for social science.” I argue that exploring the logic of encounter sheds light on the...
moreFollowing a remark by Charles Taylor, I take the problem of “understanding the other” to be “the great challenge of this century, both for politics and for social science.” I argue that exploring the logic of encounter sheds light on the ontological presuppositions of any attempt at understanding the other, which, eventually, will lead to a better understanding of the concept of understanding itself. For this purpose, I will inquire into the argumentative structure of Nishitani Keiji’s text “The I-Thou relation in Zen Buddhism.” As we will see, there are significant parallels between Nishitani’s discourse on encounter and Heidegger’s theory of truth; highlighting these parallels will help us to get a better understanding of Nishitani’s discourse. Nishitani and Heidegger both take an anti-Cartesian stance in that they develop a quasi-transcendental argument to reveal the possibility of concrete encounters and of truth (understood as correctness), respectively. However, both attempts ...