AN IMPOSSIBLE DEMAND: DECONSTRUCTIVE ETHICS AND ZEN BUDDHIST DISCOURSE By David Stephen Howe Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In Philosophy Chair: CL#y Cl Amy Oliver 1 . H x b l o Jin Y. Park Lucinda Peach Dean of the College (L-^7 Date 2005 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ^ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1428235 Copyright 2005 by Howe, David Stephen All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. 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AN IMPOSSIBLE DEMAND: DECONSTRUCTIVE ETHICS AND ZEN BUDDHIST DISCOURSE BY David Stephen Howe ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to situate Derridian deconstruction along side Zen Buddhism in order to accomplish two things. The first is to illuminate a sense of the ethical in Derridian discourse. The sense of the ethical found in Derrida marks a radical departure from the conventional conception of normative ethics found in Kant and others. Understood in light of Levinas’ work on ethics, Derrida’s deconstructive ethics offers a new way of engaging in relations with the other. Second, by situating the “methodology” of Derridian deconstruction, now understood as a deconstructive ethics, with Zen encounter dialogues, Derrida’s notion of “democracy to come” is relocated in a more global context, freeing his “promise of democracy” from its Eurocentric place in Derrida’s work. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................................................ii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. DERRIDIAN DIFFERANCE AND BUDDHIST DEPENDENT CO-ARISING................................................. 5 Differance.................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Buddhist No-Self Theory.......................................................................................................................................13 Deconstruction, Buddhism, and Non-Substantial Philosophy......................................................................... 17 3. DECONSTRUCTION AS AN ETHICAL OPERATION, AND THE ZEN ENCOUNTER DIALOGUES...................................................................................................................................... 23 What “Is” Deconstruction..................................................................................................................................... 24 Ethical Reading....................................................................................................................................................... 28 Zen Encounter Dialogues: Dogen's Response to the Koan ....................................................................Text 39 Dogen's Critique......................................................................................................................................................42 Deconstruction And The Ethical In Dogen........................................................................................................ 46 4. THE INSTITUTION, ITS VIOLENCE, AND ZEN MILITARISM..................................................................... 51 Hospitality................................................................................................................................................................ 51 The Institution......................................................................................................................................................... 53 Zen And Militarism.................................................................................................................................................56 5. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................... 65 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................................................................70 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The aim of this thesis is to situate Derridian deconstruction along side Zen Buddhism in order to accomplish two things. The first is to illuminate a sense of the ethical in Derridian discourse. The sense of the ethical found in Derrida marks a radical departure from the conventional conception of normative ethics found in Kant and others. Understood in light of Levinas’ work on ethics, Derrida’s deconstructive ethics offers a new way of engaging in relations with the other. Second, by situating the “methodology” of Derridian deconstruction, now understood as a deconstructive ethics, with Zen encounter dialogues, Derrida’s notion of “democracy to come” is relocated in a more global context, freeing his “promise of democracy” from its Eurocentric place in Derrida’s work. Derrida’s deconstructive readings of friendship, hospitality, and cosmopolitanism contribute to his notion of “democracy to come”. However, these readings deal exclusively with European texts. By drawing out parallels, particularly between differance and dependant co-arising, and situating deconstruction in light of Zen Buddhism’s relationship with time, Derrida’s promise is freed from the very Eurocentric origins it aims to deconstruct. Doing so allows for a more global and inclusive notion of “democracy to come.” By positioning deconstructive ethics this way, the approach to ethical questions becomes better suited for cross cultural analysis, escaping Derrida’s criticism of traditional Western approaches to ethics as too prescriptive and generalizing. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 This paper will proceed in three sections. First it will draw together and examine Derridian differance and the idea of dependent co-arising in Buddhism. Doing so begins to illuminate the way each deals with the “other”. Examiningdifferance in Derrida’s work and thinking about how the play of deferral and differentiation deconstruct the notion of a stable self places the individual in a new kind of relationship with the other. The deconstruction of the idea of a stable self, grounded in presence privileged by metaphysics, allows for a new way of thinking of the other. Derrida’s work on differance coupled, or read, alongside Buddhist ideas of emptiness ( sunyata), no-self, and dependent co-arising (pratitya-samutpada) further clears the path for this new kind of thinking of the other, providing a more global context for this thinking which traverses the boundary between Eastern and Western philosophical discourse. Recognizing our interdependency sets the stage for a perspective on the ethical that radically departs from the classical conception of ethics founded on generalizing principles that reduce individuals to a single blanket concept. Second, I will demonstrate why the relationship with the other should be characterized as an ethical relationship. In both Derridian deconstruction and Zen encounter dialogues, an ethical movement is in play. This section examines how this relationship of interdependency, sketched out in the first section, creates an opening where a sense of the ethical in Derrida’s work can be illuminated alongside that of the Buddhist tradition, this time particularly looking at Zen Buddhist encounter dialogues, or koan-texts. Doing so, we will not arrive at an ethics in the concrete sense, an ethical system with principles and such. Instead this examination will illuminate a sense of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 ethical in more of a Levinasian sense, as an opening, an ethical space, where ethics is practiced, though not completed. Derrida’s deconstructive reading of friendship opens up the concept of friendship from its rigid boundary