Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:05:07.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Birth of Ehiyehlogy: Beyond Buddhist Thought and Ontotheology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Hisao Miyamoto
Hisao Miyamoto*
Affiliation:
Tokyo University
*
Hisao Miyamoto, Tokyo University.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In this article it is proposed to go beyond ontotheology, which has been seen as the start of totalitarian thought and totalitarianism. In order to do this and find the key to interpretation the author refers to narratology and Hayatology or Ehiyehlogy (a variety of Hebrew ontology). From the nar-ratological viewpoint he analyses and interpretes the following Old Testament texts: Abraham’s story and the narrative of the Exodus under the guidance of Moses.

By means of this narratological analysis the author identifies in these Old Testament texts Hebrew ontological thought, that is, Ehiyehlogy. He therefore sets out some features of the Hebrew being (hayâh and ehyeh) in the following respects:

  1. i. it is an ecstatic becoming and differentiates;

  2. ii. this ecstasy has an intentionality focused on the other;

  3. iii. this intentionality tends towards creation of a community;

  4. iv. intervention by such a being (hayâh or ehyeh) articulates time, the historical kairos;

  5. v. this articulation takes the concrete form of an alliance;

  6. vi. the Hebrew being acts through being incarnate in people (prophets, sages, writers who wrote for Abraham, Moses or others, etc.).

Taken together, these features of the being make up an ontology which has an open identity and is made manifest in the narrative identity that is not monopolistic but polyphonic, that is, in little stories or anonymous, marginal characters, or else people resisting totalitarianism.

This Ehiyehlogy is supported not only by studying the Hebrew text but also by Buddhist inspiration, which emphasizes the relativity aspect rather than the substantial one. Hence, by building up Ehiyehlogy the author looks onto overcoming the totalitarian nature of contemporary civilization and look for the possibility of coexistence.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 57 , Issue 3: Japanese Philosophy Today , August 2010 , pp. 52 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2011

References

Adorno, Th W (2003) Dialectique negative. Translated from the German by the Translation Group of the Collège de philosophie; postface by Holl, Hans-Günter. Paris: Payot et Rivages. Negative Dialectics (1990). London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agamben, G (2003) Ce qui reste d’Auschwitz. Translated from the Italian by Alferi, P. Paris: Payot et Rivages. Remnants of Auschwitz (1999). New York: Zone.Google Scholar
Ariga, T (1981) « 有とハーヤー », in キリスト教思想における存在論の問題, 有賀鉄太郎著作集第四巻. Tōkyō: 創文社.Google Scholar
Aristotle (1991) Métaphysique. Translated by Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, J., revised and annotated by Mathias, P.. Paris: Pocket. Aristotle’s Metaphysics (1998). London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Dōgen, (1988) Corps et Esprit d’après le Shōbōgenzō. Texts chosen and translated from the Japanese by Coursin, J. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Dōgen, (1999) La présence au monde. Texts translated and presented by Linhartová, V.. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M (1966) Wegmarken. Frankfurt a. M.: V Klostermann. Pathmarks (1998). Cambridge: Cambridge UP.Google Scholar
Horkheimer, M, Adorno, Th W (1974) La dialectique de la raison: fragments philosophiques. Translated by Kaufholz, Éliane. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Levi, P (1987) Si c’est un homme. Translated from the Italian by Schrouffenger, M. Paris: Julliard. If this is a man (2000). London: Everyman.Google Scholar
Lévinas, E (1961) Totalité et Infini. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Totality and Infinity (2007). Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP.Google Scholar
Marion, J-L (1995) “Saint Thomas d’Aquin et l’onto-théologie”, Revue Thomiste, 95(1): 31–66.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, H (2008) 他者の甦り. Tōkyō: 創文社.Google ScholarPubMed
Miyamoto, H (2009) La question actuelle sur le livre de Job. Translated by Ono, M. Belmont-Tramonet: Abbaye de la Rochette.Google Scholar
Ryōkan, (1994) Recueil de l’ermitage au toit de chaume. Poems translated from the Japanese by Fun, CW, Collet, H. Millemont: Moundarren.Google Scholar
Ryōkan, (2009) Le moine fou est de retour. Poems chosen and translated by Fun, CW, Collet, H, 2nd revised edn, Millemont: Moundarren.Google Scholar
La Sainte Bible (1961). Translated into French under the direction of the École biblique de Jérusalem. Paris: Cerf. The Holy BibleGoogle Scholar
Wiesel, É (1982) La nuit. Paris: Minuit. Night (2008). London: Penguin.Google Scholar