The Words of the Kwon Family |
As the above mentioned, the existential philosophy tries to form a new system of conviction and value, and above all, Heidegger has been profoundly seeking after the new system of conviction and value in succession to the tradition of the philosophy by dint of Nihilism. He realizes more thoroughly Nihilism than his predecessors named Friedrich Nietzsche and S.A. Kierkegaard (1813-1885) and tries to set up a new system of conviction and value by denying and standing aloof from the Western metaphysics by and large from Plato (427-347 B.C.) to Nietzsche.
According to him, the Western metaphysics is so-called Torstellung des Denken' namely a ratios al philosophy regarding everything as its object. In such a metaphysical viewpoint, subject is opposed to object and there can be no realization of being (Sein). The Origin of subject and object, that is to say, in such a field of rational speculation, though there may be set up spiritual philosophy regarding the rational subject as the universal origin and materialistic philosophy looking to object as the origin, there may be no realization of Sein, the origin of subject and object. Thus Heidegger persists that the metaphysical history in the West could be nothing but that of existential oblivion. For his part, the systematic showdown of both blocs is a phenomenon necessarily brought forth owing to the confrontation between materialism and idealism based on the division of subject and object.
He also says that there comes to appear the will to conquer all things in the posture of Vorstellung des Denken to look everything as one's own object and it necessarily deploys the science and technics, means for conquest. From such a realization, Heidegger tries ideological orientation to inform of the dawn of new age by proving `Sein', the true universal origin.
Then can Sein, the universal origin be enough view of world over the universal division and the abyss of naught, its fruit? Heidegger tries to manifest the existence through the consciousness of naught. From the viewpoint of existence itself, naught is the existence itself. Then what is the internal meaning of the existence as naught? According to Heidegger, the existence is physics meaning original nature in the ancient Greece and Physics also means life (Zoe), the original unity prior to the division of spirit and material. However, the unity is nothing but an idealistically realized life and not practically awakened one. Though Heidegger realized naught through feeling (Stimmung), it may well be an idealistic one after all, namely naught was only realized as the basis of idealistic disease and denial, therefore it is natural for the original life to have life to have been idealistically awakened. Accordingly, we can and should come to the practical realization of the original life from the idealistic one, and for it there should come to appear the ancient Orientalism as its mediator. The ancient Orientalism was made not by means of presentation of the World but by dint of the intuition with the universe. In other words, the eastern thoughts were those intuitively realized and not metaphysically deployed based on the existential oblivion. So the reality of existence should only be realized with Orientalism as its mediator. Vanity and naught in Buddhism is the speculation for deliverance from agony, lust and pains. Since all the lust, agony and pains are originated from the existence of ego, egocentric adherence and attachment should be denied. When one realizes ego as vanity, one can be delivered from all the pains, and it may be the starting point to realize all is vanity. Coming to the conclusion, one comes to realize all is vanity and because there is no eternal identity of ego in every being, one can easily come to know the vicissitudes of life and fortune and so on. However, such a trying to be delivered from agony only the realization may be far beyond the broader awakening.
Since it is the final object of religion to get the ecstasy and rest of eternal life through conversion to the Absolute Being, such a realization cannot be conversed to the Absolute beincr, because it falls into the relative negative viewpoint denying it in confrontation with the relative being named ego and law. Therefore in order to get over such a narrower viewpoint, it is inevitable for us to deny the viewpoint of relative negator. As such a negation means redenial of relative negation, it may be the absolute negation. And through this absolute denial, we come so vacuum or absolute naught. The vacuum is the stage of deliverance from all the agonies given rise so from the adherence of all the existent being including ego and stage delivered from all the attachment. As above mentioned, the speculation of naught and vanity in Buddhist philosophy has made big contribution to the verification of mutability of all the limited beings through disclosure of naught, but the thought of absolute naught, or vacuum was inclined to the deepened religious illumination far beyond realistic and practical aspect of naught. Though such an illuminating stand point of vacuum can lead mankind to idealistic deliverance from agony by means of making them watch closely of things without any attachment, it can hardly be expected for it to save mankind realistically through change of practical human life. Nowadays, it is desirable for religion to save mankind by dint of devotion to the realistic activities. Quite different from Buddhist, philosophy of Laotze in Orientalism awakened deeply of naught. Laotze called the origin of all creatures Tao and Tao is something as well as naught, but this does not mean that there are both of them, the origin can be called either something or naught, just like as Hegel (1770-1831) previded that genuine something and genuine naught are both non-prescribable directive ones. But Hegel leaned to something and came to the absolute spirit whereas Laotze tended to naught. According to Laotze, actionless as naught looks, there is nothing that plays greater parts than naught, everything comes into appear from naught and the rise and fall of heaven and earth are nothing but comes of naught. Denouncing all the artificial, Laotze advised to live in close cooperation with nature for idealistic life. Finally he persisted in non-violence and abolition of armament. Judging from his viewpoint, he can be said to have come to the profound stage through the disclosure of practical naught in comparison with the illuminating viewpoint of vacuum in Buddhism, but trying to lean on the great part of naught, he reached the non-realistic conclusion. Naught does not play his part directly in human life but plays in the source of human life, namely, its great part comes to appear through the action of relative something. Since original naught is the source of creations and disappearances of all things, the great part of naught could be no other than the creative action of original naught. Now so as to be conscious of its creative action, let us touch with the art of divination. The art is the proper one of the ancient tribe Han in the vicinity of Huanghe (The Yellow River) but it was academically conscious in the Zhou dynasty as Zhou Art of divination. The art of divination tries to deploy of the theory of appearance and vicissitudes of the universe and life. According to the art, the origin of the universe and life is Taiji (Taegeuk) and Yang (positive)and Yin (negative) come from Taiji, the combination of Yang with Yin brings forth heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon, the earth etc.) and heaven and earth, thunder and wind, water and fire, mountains and lakes come from them and finally all the other creatures are from these. The consistent basic theory of the art may well be principle of combination of Yang and Yin, and what is the ground?
(a) The structure of a thing is made of bipolar harmony of Yang-Yin, and in comparison with the dialectics by Hegel, he understand the structure of nature as this bipolar unity of thesis and antithesis, but tending to the motive of thesis, he regarded the motive of anti-thesis as assumed one and in the long run his dialectics could be no bipolar dialectics but unipolar dialectics and his unipolar dialectics tended to the spirit became an idealistic one, so it necessarily gave rise to the direct opposite unipolar one named materialistic dialectics. Even though unipolar dialectical principle may take hold of motion and change, it is impossible for the creative phenomenon to be grasped. Such a creative phenomenon can only be taken hold of by bipolar Principle of Yang and Yin.
(b) In accordance with the harmony of leaven and earth, it is possible for man to come to appear and develop, so this is so- called the moral principle of heaven, earth and man, and the principles which make everyone alive became the centric thought of Confucianism in politico-philosophy. Thus, taking no account of confronting and struggling motive, the principles of divination turned to be conservative as Hegel's dialectics regarded as appearable one, and during the past five thousand years, it has made the Oriental people conservative an I stagnant. Through the above review, we can touch with the profound thoughts named the logics of harmony of Yang and Yin, thoughts of vanity in all, and realization of great part of naught etc. In succession to the strict and logical process of development in the West and in supplementation with the profound Orientalism, can the Principle of Creation be made. Let me investigate the structural essence of the Principle of Creation.
(To be continued)