Plato Encounters Zen—atop the Mountain Peaks of Iran
Joseph P. Lawrence
Comparative and Continental Philosophy January 14, 2009 DOI: 10.1558/ccp.v1i1.119 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that Izutzu's work reveals a deep tension in Socrates between public discourse and private meaning, and that Plato's "Myth of the True Earth" likely derives from the Persian legend of Hūrqalyā, a world of essence accessible only through direct intuition similar to Zen meditation. |
Abstract
Toshihiko Izutzu's Ishiki to Honshitsu, recently translated into German under the title of Bewusstsein und Wesen, represents a Zen-inspired clarification of a deep underlying tension that characterizes the figure of Socrates: on the one hand a commitment to a fully public form of discourse (thus the central role of defining one's terms) and on the other hand a recognition of the elusively private dimension of language (the insistence that one's interlocutor say what he means). Izutzu (the father of Islamic studies in Japan) lets his philosophical encounter between East and West find its focal point in that tradition of Persian Sufism which culminates in the thought of Mulla Sadra. It is here that Wesen (essence) takes on flesh. Remarkably enough, Plato too had his Persian encounter, as can be inferred from the "Myth of the True Earth" that comes at the end of the Phaedo and represents the last recorded words of Socrates. The ancient Persian legend of Hūrqalyā, the Celestial Earth of emerald cities that Henri Corbin recounted a generation ago, is almost certainly Plato's source. The resurrection world it depicts is a world of Wesen that can be cognitively appropriated only through the kind of direct intuition that is the goal of Zen meditation.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |