Dialectic into Dialogos and the Pragmatics of No-thingness in a Time of Crisis

• Authors: John Vervaeke , Christopher Mastropietro

Abstracts

EN

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

EN

dialectic; dialogos; nothingness; nihilism; metanoia; parable; koan

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 58-77

Contributors

author

John Vervaeke

• Psychology Department, University of Toronto

• https://orcid.org/0000000167922737

author

Christopher Mastropietro

Identifiers

DOI

10.14394/eidos.jpc.2021.0017

Biblioteka Nauki

1833802