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Proquest Dissertations SARTRE AND NISHITANI: TOWARD DEVELOPING A SOCIALLY ENGAGED ZEN ETHICS By Peter Park Submitted to the Faculty ofthe College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In Philosophy Chair: Ellen Feder Dean R.fthe ~le~", ~(~ ~I. CD\\) Date 2010 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY q53~ UMI Number: 1484432 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI __.Dissertation Publishing z-._ UMI 1484432 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Pro uesr --- ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml48106-1346 DEDICATION To all those beings who made this possible SARTRE AND NISHITANI: TOWARD DEVELOPING A SOCIALLY ENGAGED ZEN ETHICS BY Peter Park ABSTRACT This project is a comparative textual study of the ontologies and ethics of Jean­ Paul Sartre and Nishitani Keiji in order to establish a basis for a socially engaged Zen Buddhist ethics as exemplified in the Engaged Buddhism movement. Initially, I develop a Sartrean ethics of fraternity based on a movement from independent self-centered personal freedom to an interdependent universal freedom. However, shortcomings of this Sartrean ethics are illustrated through examining Nishitani Keiji's Zen Buddhist philosophy of emptiness. Finally, Mahayana Buddhist philosophers including Vimalakirti, Nagarjuna, and Dogen are brought out to develop a socially engaged Buddhism which has become actualized in today's Engaged Buddhism movement. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the culmination of not only many long, lonely hours of reading, thinking, and writing but more importantly a community of mentors, supporters, and friends. I am only the highest expectations of my community. First, I would have to thank my mentor, Dr. Jin Y. Park. Her class and office chats were where I first envisioned my thesis. I am indebted to Dr. Farhang Erfani for teaching me Sartre's existential philosophy and helping me navigate through my confusion. Dr. Shubha Pathak, my thesis chair, for graciously reading my rough drafts, providing valuable feedback, and reflecting my ideas with clarity. Finally, Dr. Ellen Feder for providing support and pushing me to make this not merely a personal work but a professional, scholarly work for the world. I must also give thanks to my friends and peers for giving me the encouragement to continue this work in my darkest hours and valuable feedback on my early drafts. I almost quit at times, thanks Frankie and Shuo. Finally, none of this would be possible without my parents. Their unfaltering support in my dreams has shaped who I am today. Thank you. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................ .ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................... .iii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1 2. FREEDOM AND FRATERNITY: JEAN-PAUL SARTRE'S ETHICS .................................................................................... 4 3. EMPTINESS AND INTERBEING: NISHITANI KEIJI'S PHILOSOPHY ............................................................................32 4. EMPTINESS IN SOCIETY: ENGAGED ZEN BUDDHIST ETHICS ........... 55 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 79 lV CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Ontology and ethics. What is truly real and how does that impact one's actions? Last year, I began reading Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness with the belief that he understood the human condition better than did any past philosopher whose work I had read. However, there were fundamental pieces missing from Sartre's essay. His work seemed too narrow, too focused on the individual's freedom, and too cynical about the possibility for loving relationships. Being and Nothingness ended with Sartre's promise to write a work on ethics that would fill the gaps left. His book of ethics was never completed, but his Notebooks for an Ethics does exist. Nevertheless, no matter how many of his later works I read, Sartre's ethics still seemed incomplete. I initially developed a Sartrean ethics based on his later ideas on fraternity or interdependence. However, this developed ethics still proved unfulfilling. I was not alone in my pursuit to develop such an ethics. Secondary works, such as Thomas C. Anderson's Sartre 's Two Ethics, or more recently, Paul Crittenden's Sartre in Search ofan Ethics, also attempt to construct a Sartrean ethics. Both are excellent, but they deal strictly with Sartre's philosophy. While there have been many works comparing Heidegger and Buddhist philosophy, there is a lack of comparative studies between Sartre and Buddhism. Therefore, I looked to Zen Buddhism's ontology of emptiness. Zen Buddhist emptiness emphasizes the lack of self-existence of all beings. That is to say, nothing exists 1 2 independent of others. Bridging the gap between Zen Buddhism and Sartre's existentialism was Nishitani Keiji, Sartre's contemporary who was the third chair of the Kyoto School and who studied existentialism in Germany during the 1950s. Nishitani's model of three fields, from consciousness to nihility to emptiness offered a bridge from Sartre's ontology of being and nothingness to the Zen Buddhist ontology of emptiness, but lacked a socially engaged ethics. For such an ethics, I turned to Engaged Buddhism, which since the twentieth century has pursued economic, political, and social means to overturn oppression and relieve worldwide suffering. The first chapter of my cumulative ethical inquiry deals with constructing a Sartrean ethics of universal freedom based on several ofSartre's works, including Being and Nothingness, Notebooks for an Ethics, and Hope Now. Using these texts, I begin by articulating his ontology of being and nothingness, along with its other forms, such as facticity and freedom. I illustrate that he was always concerned with the problem of ethics. Furthermore, I show the evolution of his philosophy over the years, from a strictly free individuality towards an ideal vision of interdependent fraternity. My second chapter introduces Nishitani's critique ofSartre's philosophy for remaining attached to the ego and explains Nishitani's fields of consciousness, nihility, 1 and emptiness • Nishitani defines nihility as that which strips meaning from life, and emptiness is defined as all beings lacking or empty of self-existence in so far as nothing exists independently from other beings. Despite Sartre's admirable achievement of bringing nothingness and nihility into philosophical discourse, Nishitani criticizes him for 1 Nihility is defined by Nishitani as that which renders things meaningless. In that sense, nihilism is not simply the lack of meaning but the impossibility for meaning to even exist. 3 remaining attached to the ego. As an alternative to Sartre's ontology, I give an overview from Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness of the fields of consciousness, nihility, and emptiness, which constitute his way of understanding the religious quest towards enlightenment. My final chapter centers on a socially engaged Zen ethics based on Sartre's social engagement, Nishitani, and Engaged Buddhism. Before developing a Zen ethics, however, I ask whether Zen Buddhism is an anti-worldly religion seeking liberation from this world of suffering. If so, the possibility for a socially engaged Zen ethics would be impossible. Then, I draw on Nishitani to explain why Buddhism has historically lacked a socially engaged ethics. I conclude by developing a socially engaged Zen ethics. This socially engaged Zen ethics combines the best of Sartre's social engagement with Zen philosophy of emptiness. My hope in developing this ethics is to provide a philosophical and historical basis within Mahayana Buddhism for the emergence of Engaged Buddhism and its transition from personal liberation to a transformation of society. CHAPTER2 FREEDOM AND FRATERNITY: JEAN-PAUL SARTRE'S ETHICS In Being and Nothingness, Sartre asserted that all human beings, regardless of their situations, always had an absolute ontological freedom. His Being and Nothingness was dedicated to systematically proving through a phenomenological approach that 2 human beings were fundamentally free and thereby responsible for shaping the world . His political life called upon humanity to become socially engaged in order to combat inequalities and injustices around the world. Thus, he was a humanist advocating social justice through his philosophy and his numerous political activities such as endorsing controversial writers or supporting the Algeria's independence. However, many of his readers criticize his philosophy as being individualistic and lacking ethics. Indeed, he himself, when interviewed by Benny Levy in Hope Now, admits, "In Being and Nothingness my theory of others left the individual too independent."3 Because of Sartre's emphasis on individual freedom, readers often conclude he
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