Beyond transcendence in law and philosophy : a Zen reading of Heidegger, Levinas and Wittgenstein

What is the law of the law? What produces our craven subservience to linguistic norms, and our shocking indifference to the phenomenon of universal suffering? In a path-breaking new work of philosophy, Louis Wolcher seeks to answer these questions from the standpoint of Zen Buddhism. Bringing an Eastern sensibility into contact with three of the most important themes in Western philosophy, Beyond Transcendence in Law and Philosophy meticulously investigates three of the twentieth century's most important philosophers: Martin Heidegger - on being, Emmanuel Levinas - on ethics, and Ludwig Wittgenstein - on language. In the context of the larger Western obsession with transcending the ordinary, Louis Wolcher argues that the yearning for transcendence is born of the illusion that there is a fundamental difference between the ordinary and the profound. Employing Zen koans and stories to advance a 'deflationary' view of language and knowledge, he goes on to argue that the norms of transcendence to which we cling are not eternal truths but artefacts of desperate minds adrift on a sea of impermanence. What used to seem so majestically True, Right and Just thus shows itself to be utterly mundane: as merely true, right and just. What is left, however, is not nihilism - for clinging to a view of 'nothingness' is just as deluded as clinging to a view of 'somethingness' - but rather a new beginning of compassionate concern for the suffering of others. Beyond Transcendence in Law and Philosophy is a strikingly original synthesis of Eastern and Western thought. It will enlighten philosophers and legal theorists, as well as those who are interested in or open to the insights of Zen Buddhism. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgments Preface Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface List of illustrations Chapter 1: A Zen Beginning ‘Beyond Transcendence’ A Sketch of the Journey The Deflationary View of Language Thusness Mountains and Rivers Three Conventional Forms of Transcendence Logical Transcendence Plato’s Paper Cave Chapter 2: Heidegger’s Groundless Ground First Things First Being as Ground To be Capable of Failing Freedom as Freedom for Ground The History of Being A Billion Glittering Images: The Disunity of the Ground ‘A Rough Idea’ Chapter 3: Levinas’s Problem of the Passage Introducing the Problem Suffering as Such Levinas’s ‘Useless Suffering’ Ethics and Transcendence Justice and Immanence A Phenomenological Interpretation of Distress The Problem of the Passage Chapter 4: Wittgenstein’s Noisy Silence Introducing A Lecture on Ethics Tracing the Movements of the Lecture The Lecture as an Ethical Deed A Zen Reading of Wittgenstein’s Thesis of Silence Chapter 5: The Third Mountain The Two Mountains that Henry Adams Saw Choosing Order Over Chaos Choosing Chaos Over Order Rejecting the Dualism of Chaos and Order The Narrow Drum The Three Mountains Bibliography Index "Bringing an Eastern sensibility into contact with three of the most important themes in Western philosophy, Beyond Transcendence in Law and Philosophy investigates three of the twentieth century's most important philosophers - Martin Heidegger - on being, Emmanuel Levinas - on ethics, and Ludwig Wittgenstein - on language. In the context of the larger Western obsession with transcending the ordinary, Louis Wolcher argues that the yearning for transcendence is born of the illusion that there is a fundamental difference between the ordinary and the profound. Beyond Transcendence in Law and Philosophy will enlighten philosophers and legal theorists, as well as those who are interested in or open to the insights of Zen Buddhism."--Jacket.