Contributions To Phenomenology In Cooperation with The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology Volume 87 Series Editors Nicolas de Warren, KU Leuven, Belgium Dermot Moran, University College Dublin, Ireland Editorial Board Lilian Alweiss, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Elizabeth Behnke, Ferndale, WA, USA Rudolf Bernet, Husserl Archive, KU Leuven, Belgium David Carr, Emory University, GA, USA Chan-Fai Cheung, Chinese University Hong Kong, China James Dodd, New School University, NY, USA Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University, FL, USA Alfredo Ferrarin, Università di Pisa, Italy Burt Hopkins, Seattle University, WA, USA José Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada Kwok-Ying Lau, Chinese University Hong Kong, China Nam-In Lee, Seoul National University, Korea Rosemary R.P. Lerner, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru Dieter Lohmar, University of Cologne, Germany William R. McKenna, Miami University, OH, USA Algis Mickunas, Ohio University, OH, USA J.N. Mohanty, Temple University, PA, USA Junichi Murata, University of Tokyo, Japan Thomas Nenon, The University of Memphis, TN, USA Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Germany Gail Soffer, Rome, Italy Anthony Steinbock, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, IL, USA Shigeru Taguchi, Hokkaido University, Japan Dan Zahavi, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA
Scope The purpose of the series is to serve as a vehicle for the pursuit of phenomenological research across a broad spectrum, including cross-over developments with other fields of inquiry such as the social sciences and cognitive science. Since its establishment in 1987, Contributions to Phenomenology has published more than 80 titles on diverse themes of phenomenological philosophy. In addition to welcoming monographs and collections of papers in established areas of scholarship, the series encourages original work in phenomenology. The breadth and depth of the Series reflects the rich and varied significance of phenomenological thinking for seminal questions of human inquiry as well as the increasingly international reach of phenomenological research. The series is published in cooperation with The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5811
Kwok-Ying Lau Phenomenology and Intercultural Understanding Toward a New Cultural Flesh
Kwok-Ying Lau Department of Philosophy The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, Hong Kong ISSN 0923-9545 ISSN 2215-1915 (electronic) Contributions To Phenomenology ISBN 978-3-319-44762-9 ISBN 978-3-319-44764-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44764-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016954428 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
Preface The studies collected in this volume were written between 1996 and 2016. While most chapters were originally written in English, some of them were first conceived in Chinese or even in French. They are all published here in English after revision or further elaboration. All of these studies have been first presented in conferences or lectures held respectively in Basel, Beijing, Delray Beach (Florida), Dublin, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Kyoto, Prague, Seoul, and Taipei. During all these conferences or lectures, I have greatly benefitted from exchanges with colleagues and friends coming from the five continents of the planet (East Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia). Their comments and criticisms are constant sources of further reflection and improvement. These studies are thus themselves the fruits of intercultural understanding. There are a lot of people to whom I would like to express my gratitude. While it is impossible to name every individual here, I would like to thank in particular Prof. Elmar Holenstein and Prof. Kah Kyung Cho who are the first to have encouraged me to advance on the road to intercultural understanding in philosophy through phenomenology. I also thank my friends of P.E.A.CE (Phenomenology for East- Asia CirclE) and C.A.R.P. (Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, USA) from whom I received the most constant support since almost two decades. My thanks go also to academic and administrative colleagues of my home department, the Department of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who always provide me with the help and support I need, especially in terms of conference organization and conference participation. To my family, I thank them for their tolerance to my frequent absence from home because of research and conference trips. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers encouraging comments and suggestions for revisions, which have been seriously taken into consideration. Last but not the least, I am grateful to Dermot Moran and Nicolas de Warren, General Editors of the series Contributions to Phenomenology, who have gracefully accepted my work to be published in this prestigious series. Phenomenology is a rich garden of cultural diversity. This book is the witness of the author s humble contribution to its irrigation. Shatin, Hong Kong Kwok-Ying Lau v
Contents 1 Introduction: Cultural Flesh and Intercultural Understanding: A Phenomenological Approach... 1 1.1 The Need for Intercultural Understanding... 1 1.2 Antithetic Aspects of Husserlian Phenomenology with Respect to Intercultural Understanding: the Closed- Nature of Husserl s Idea of Philosophy and the Openness of the Phenomenological Method and Practices... 3 1.3 Three Aspects of Intercultural Understanding in Philosophy... 9 1.4 Cultural Flesh and Its Cultivation: The Way to Enter into the Horizon of Another Culture... 15 2 Para-deconstruction: Preliminary Considerations for a Phenomenology of Interculturality... 21 2.1 A Double Epoché... 23 2.2 Husserl: Double Exclusion... 24 2.3 Derridian Deconstruction: Cultural Transgression Forbidden... 27 2.4 Para-deconstruction: Deconstruction and Re-appropriation... 29 2.5 Lévi-Strauss: Hybridity of Cultural Formations... 31 2.6 Merleau-Ponty: From the Pre-objective World to Inter-worlds... 32 3 To What Extent Can Phenomenology Do Justice to Chinese Philosophy? A Phenomenological Reading of Laozi... 35 3.1 Contrasting Attitudes in the Western Representation of Chinese Philosophy... 36 3.1.1 Daoist Philosophy as Anti-rationalism... 36 3.1.2 Philosophical Daoism as One of Heidegger s Hidden Sources... 37 vii
viii Contents 3.2 Is a Phenomenological Reading of Chinese Philosophy Committed to Eurocentrism? Return to Husserl s Eurocentric Conception of Philosophy... 40 3.3 Elements of a Phenomenological Reading of Laozi... 42 3.3.1 Dao as Inchoative Nature... 42 3.3.2 Deployment of the Dao : Dialectic and Retrieval... 46 3.3.3 Characteristics of the Dao : Vacuity and Quietude, Tenderness and Weakness... 48 3.4 Concluding Remarks... 51 4 Husserl, Buddhism and the Crisis of European Sciences... 53 4.1 Husserl, Hegel and the Eurocentric Conception of Philosophy... 54 4.2 Husserl s Praise of Buddhist Scriptures... 56 4.3 Buddha: The Eastern Socrates?... 59 4.4 Husserl s Conception of Philosophy, the Crisis of European Sciences and Buddhism... 64 5 Jan Patočka: Critical Consciousness and Non- Eurocentric Philosopher of the Phenomenological Movement... 67 5.1 Introduction: Patočka as Non-Eurocentric Phenomenological Philosopher... 67 5.2 Patočka s Significance for the Chinese Philosophical Community Today... 69 5.3 Patočka as the Critical Consciousness of the Phenomenological Movement... 70 5.4 Post-European Humanity and the Aporia of the Meaning of History... 77 5.5 Phenomenology of the Natural World and Its Promise... 79 5.6 In the Place of a Conclusion... 82 6 Europe Beyond Europe: Patočka s Concept of Care for the Soul and Mencius. An Intercultural Consideration... 85 6.1 Introduction... 85 6.2 Patočka s Critical Reading of Husserl s Diagnosis of the Crisis of European Humanity... 87 6.3 Care for the Soul and the Philosophical Anthropology Underlying the Mythical Framework of the Greeks... 93 6.4 The Philosophical-Anthropological Framework of Mencius Theory of the Fourfold Human Spiritual Disposition: A Chinese Counterpart to the Idea of Care for the Soul?... 98 7 Disenchanted World-View and Intercultural Understanding: From Husserl Through Kant to Chinese Culture... 103 7.1 Disenchanted World-View and Intercultural Understanding: Eurocentrism of Husserl s Idea of Philosophy and Rediscovery of Certain Moment of Its Rational Kernel... 104
Contents ix 7.2 Modern Science and the Disenchanted World-View: From Weber Through Nietzsche Back to Kant... 108 7.3 Chinese Culture s Contribution to the Disenchanted World-View: The Chinese Chronology Controversy and the Chinese Rites Controversy in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Europe... 113 7.3.1 The Chinese Chronology Controversy... 115 7.3.2 The Chinese Rites Controversy and the Debate Around the Nature of Chinese Culture... 117 7.4 Conclusion... 124 8 Self-Transformation and the Ethical Telos : Orientative Philosophy in Lao Sze-Kwang, Foucault and Husserl... 125 8.1 Introduction: Hegemony of Cognitive Philosophy and the Rise of Orientative Philosophy in Contemporary West... 125 8.2 Lao Sze-Kwang s Concept of Orientative Philosophy with Zhuangzi and Mencius as Examples... 128 8.3 Self-Transformation and Orientative Philosophy in the Final Foucault: Ethical Turn and Self- Transformation of the Subject... 135 8.3.1 Contribution and Insufficiency of Archaeology of Knowledge and Genealogy of Power in the Earlier Foucault... 135 8.3.2 Foucault s Ethical Turn: Askēsis (Techniques of the Self) and the Formation of the Autonomous Ethical Subject... 139 8.3.3 Techniques of the Self in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy: Morality of Autonomy and Aesthetic of Existence through Self-Mastery and Askēsis (Orientative Philosophy in Twofold Sense)... 141 8.3.4 Ancient Western Philosophical Practice as Spirituality or Spiritual Exercise... 144 8.4 Phenomenological Epoché: Husserl s Philosophical Practice as Orientative Philosophy?... 146 8.5 Concluding Remarks... 150 9 Lévi-Strauss and Merleau-Ponty: From Nature-Culture Distinction to Savage Spirit and Their Intercultural Implications... 153 9.1 Nature, Culture and History: Lévi-Strauss Challenge to Phenomenology as Philosophy of Consciousness... 154 9.1.1 What Is Nature?... 154 9.1.2 The Nature-Culture Distinction... 155 9.1.3 Structural Method s Challenge to Philosophies of Subject... 159
x Contents 9.2 Merleau-Ponty s Response to Lévi-Strauss: From the Nature-Culture Distinction to Brute Being and Savage Spirit... 160 9.2.1 Structural Anthropology as a Mode of Thinking Close to Phenomenology... 160 9.2.2 Savage Mind and the Emergence of Culture and History: Lévi-Strauss and Merleau-Ponty s Ontological Search for Brute Being and Savage Spirit of the Primordial Order... 162 9.3 Intercultural Implications of Structural Anthropology: Merleau-Ponty s Reading... 165 9.3.1 Psychoanalysis as Myth and the Primitive Side of Western Civilization... 165 9.3.2 Distance and Other Cultures as Co-constitutive of Total Being and Total Truth... 166 9.3.3 Broadening of Reason by Lateral Universals... 167 9.3.4 Indian and Chinese Philosophies as Other Relationships to Being That the West Has Not Opted for... 169 9.4 Conclusion... 171 10 The Flesh: From Ontological Employment to Intercultural Employment... 173 10.1 Introduction... 174 10.2 Has the Notion of Flesh Any Theoretical Validity?... 176 10.3 Going Beyond Metaphysical Dualism While Taking into Account Ontological Duality: The Flesh as Two-Dimensional Being... 179 10.4 The Flesh or Thinking the Domain of the In-between: Interpenetration, Interdependence, Intertwining, Encroachment, Intercorporeity, Interworld... 186 10.5 Interworld: Explication by Intercultural Experience... 188 10.6 Cultivation of a Cultural Flesh as Condition of Possibility of Intercultural Understanding... 190 10.7 In the Place of a Conclusion... 191 11 Conclusion: Toward a New Cultural Flesh... 193 11.1 Recapitulation... 193 11.2 Further Reflections on the Concept of Cultural Flesh... 196 11.2.1 Lévinas Appraisal of the Concept of Flesh and the Enigma of Ontological Separation... 196 11.2.2 Non-sympathetic Reception of the Notion of Flesh by Deleuze and Derrida... 200 11.2.3 Michel Henry s Radical Phenomenology of Flesh and Its Theocentric Concept of Life, History and Culture... 206
Contents xi 11.2.4 Philosophy of Pure Immanence and Eurocentrism of Deleuzian Geophilosophy... 210 11.2.5 Advantage of Merleau-Ponty s Notion of Flesh for a Theory of Intercultural Understanding... 216 11.2.6 What Is New in the Concept of Cultural Flesh?... 225 Bibliography... 231 Author Index... 243 Subject Index... 245