The Question of Being : East-West Perspectives (Reprint)

Contents: The question of being as comparative philosophy/Mervyn Sprung. I. Some western perspectives : 1. Being in early western tradition/Joseph Owens. 2. Linguistic relativism and the Greek project of ontology/Charles H. Kahn. 3. Plato and Heidegger/H.G. Gadamer. 4. Questions in Heidegger’s thought about being/Zygmunt Adamczewski. 5. Heidegger’s path of thinking and the way of meditation in the early Upanisads/Robert C. Scharff. II. Some eastern perspectives : 1. On being and what there is : Indian perspectives on the question of being/Wilhelm Halbfass. 2. Some special characteristics of Sat (being) in Advaita Vedanta/J.G. Arapura. 3. Being and the middle way/Mervyn Sprung. 4. Some aspects of Indian thinking on being/J.N. Mohanty. Index. "A pioneer work in comparative philosophy. This book approaches the question of being through a range of traditions : the Greek, the Christian, the post-Nietzschean European, the Hindu, and the Buddhist. The question of being therefore is both a fresh, cross-cultural approach to a vital issue and also an example of comparative philosophy in action. "The editor’s introduction clarifies historically the concept of comparative philosophy from A.du Perron’s journey to Persia in the late 18 century to the work of such modern thinkers as Deussen, Jung and Aurbindo. Chapters by Owens and Kahn are concerned with the question of being in Greek philosophy; Gadamer, Adamczewski, and Scharff relate Heidegger’s thought variously to Plato and the Greeks, the Upanisads, and the question of being. From the eastern perspective : Halbfass examines the Indian realist school of Vaisesika with reference to Aristotle; Arapura writes of Advaita Vedanta thought of sat and brahman; Sprung discusses the importance of the Buddhist middle way in relation to the question of being ; and Mohanty contrast Vedanta, Nyaya, and Buddhist theories about being." (jacket).…