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LECTURE> Robert Sharf: "Making Philosophical Sense of Chan Cases (Zen kōan)" International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (ICPBS)
by Charles Muller
Topic: Making Philosophical Sense of Chan Cases (Zen kōan)
Speaker: Prof. Robert H. Sharf (UC Berkeley)
Date: July 11th, Tuesday, 16:30-18:00
Venue: International College
for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (ICPBS),
2-8-9 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-0003 Japan (Phone:
+81-3-5981-5271)Abstract: Some scholars have argued that certain Indian Buddhist philosophers associated with early Madhyamaka are dialetheists—i.e., they allow for and occasionally countenance paradox. Other scholars have disagreed, insisting that the ostensible paradoxes that show up in Madhyamaka and Prajñāpāramitā works can be parameterized through the application of the two truths, which defuses the logical contradictions. But what if the two truths are themselves paradoxical? If so, they could not be used to tame other paradoxes.
In my talk I will argue that medieval Chinese Buddhist exegetes recognized, endorsed, and elaborated on paradoxes implicit or explicit in Mahāyāna thought. Chan cases (gong'an, kōan) probe the nature and import of these paradoxes with philosophical rigor and subtlety. Hence rather than viewing Chan cases as literary ephemera, or as antiphilosophy, or as incoherent mystical utterances, I will argue that they are philosophically cogent treatments of issues at the very heart of Mahāyāna thought.
