The Continuing Relevance of Congruent/Incongruent Names Revealed by Buddhist Epistemology
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The Continuing Relevance of Congruent/Incongruent Names Revealed by Buddhist Epistemology Sandra A. Wawrytko 1 Accepted: 1 September 2020/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
I am delighted to have the opportunity to comment on the award-winning essay of Professors D’Ambrosio, Kantor, and Moeller, which offers intriguing insights on the role of names during a crucial period of Chinese philosophy’s evolution (D’Ambrosio, Kantor, and Moeller 2018). My response focuses on three questions related to the role of Buddhist philosophy in the congruent/incongruent clash, including contemporary implications: (1) Is there a fatal flaw in the “congruent” view of names? In demanding order, stability, and certainty, did the mingjiao 名 教 fixation on language contribute to inflexible thinking, engendering a dysfunctional and dehumanizing cognitive set? (2) Does the Daoist view of nondualism harbor an inherent limitation? How would you evaluate the efficacy of Sengzhao’s 僧肇 strategy adopting Daoist terminology in his presentation of Madhyamaka thought? Does it expose a critical difference between Daoist and Buddhist philosophies of language? (3) Did Buddhist nondualism, the view of no view, radicalize Chinese philosophy? To what extent did Buddhism’s methodology of cognitive flexibility influence the evolution of all Chinese schools of philosophy?
1 A Fatal Flaw in the “Congruent” View of Names? In the Confucian-Daoist debate over names each side presupposes a metaphysical hierarchy. As our authors note, for Confucians names are “mainstream”; for Daoists superficial names or actualities have a nameless source (Dao 道). The Daoists challenged the “cognitive set” of the Confucians, that is, the set of rules and strategies developed to insure social and political harmony. The decline and eventual demise of the Han 漢 dynasty undermined the credibility of its Confucian cognitive set, even among scholarofficials. Our authors note a concern with hypocritical usage of names among both
* Sandra A. Wawrytko [email protected]
1
Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Sandra A. Wawrytko
Confucian and Daoist camps (D’Ambrosio et al. 2018: 314). While names and language were deemed essential to the Confucian task of rectifying human relationships in social and political spheres, Daoists remained skeptical of both the means and ends of Confucians. The Dao De Jing 道德經 proclaims: “Whoever knows does not speak; Whoever speaks does not know” (ch. 56; my translation). Similarly, Zhuangzi 莊子 deconstructs language and argumentation using language and argumentation. An act of perception involves a valuation of what is perceived. A neuroscientific analysis of the process recognizes specialized neurons in the brain that respond to sense data, creating a sensation that through interpretation gives rise to a perception. Scientific studies of cognitive processing reveal two complementary attentional networks in the bilateral brain. The stimulus-driven default network is receptive to the external environment in a way that
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