Abstract:
Nishitani and Neoplatonism both argue that overcoming the nihilism of non-being requires a confrontation with, and cultivation of, the experience of nothingness. This paper argues that the appreciation of nothingness is best realized in the practice of dialectic into dialogos, as adapted from the Socratic tradition. We argue that dialectic equips the self for the confrontation with nihilism, and is best suited to transforming the privative experience of nothingness into a superlative, collective experience of no-thingness. The practice of dialectic into dialogos exapts the nature of the self as a synthesis of being and non-being, and possibility and necessity, in and through its relationship to others, and to its own otherness within self-transcendence. Dialectic into dialogos can thereby become a central philosophical practice for responding to our contemporary meaning crisis by affording a generative process of meaning-making that can lead to personal and cultural transformation and communion within the culture – renewing communitas for new communities.
Keywords:
dialectic, dialogos, nothingness, nihilism, metanoia, parable, koan
How to cite:
Vervaeke, John, and Christopher Mastropietro. “Dialectic into Dialogos and the Pragmatics of No-thingness in a Time of Crisis.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 5, no. 2 (2021): 58-77. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2021.0017.
Author:
John Vervaeke
Psychology Department, University of Toronto
100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6792-2737
john.vervaeke@utoronto.ca
Christopher Mastropietro
christopher.mastropietro@alum.utoronto.ca
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