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Being and Ambiguity: Philosophical Experiments with Tiantai Buddhism
Contributor(s): Ziporyn, Brook (Author)
ISBN: 0812695429     ISBN-13: 9780812695427
Publisher: Open Court
OUR PRICE:   $40.46  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: August 2004
Qty:
Annotation: "Being and Ambiguity, while making use of the methods of the Western tradition, proposes a paradigm shift derived from Chinese Buddhism's Tiantai school. Using Tiantai's "Three Truths," Ziporyn brings insights to questions of identity, determinacy, contextuality, being, desire, boredom, addiction, love, and truth. By turns rigorously analytic and irreverent, the book offers a meaningful and enjoyable reading experience in comparative philosophy.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Philosophy | Buddhist
Dewey: 294.342
LCCN: 2004010772
Physical Information: 1.25" H x 6.02" W x 9" (1.45 lbs) 428 pages
Themes:
- Religious Orientation - Buddhist
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Being and Ambiguity is a brilliant work of philosophy, filled with insights, jokes, and topical examples. Professor Ziporyn draws on the works of such Western thinkers as Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, and Hegel, but develops his main argument from Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. This important work introduces Tiantai Buddhism to the reader and demonstrates its relevance to profound philosophical issues.

Ziporyn argues that we can make both of the claims below simultaneously:
This book is about everything. It contains the answers to all philosophical problems which ever shall exist. This book is all claptrap. It is completely devoid of objective validity of any kind.

These claims are not contradictory. Rather, they state the same thing in two different ways. To be objective truth is to be subjective claptrap, and vise versa. All interchanges of any kind - conversations, daydreams, sensations - are not only about something but also about everything.

Thus, this book concerns itself with no less than the nature of what is and what it means for something to be what it is. It provides a new approach to the basic Western philosophical and psychological issues of identity, determinacy, being, desire, boredom, addiction, love and truth.