THE PLATONIC CONCEPTION AND THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGE: A GADAMERIAN INTERPRETATION OF DOGEN’S “MOUNTAINS AND WATERS AS SUTRAS”
THE PLATONIC CONCEPTION AND THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGE: A GADAMERIAN INTERPRETATION OF DOGEN’S “MOUNTAINS AND WATERS AS SUTRAS”

Summary/Abstract: This paper starts from the assumption of Gadamer's hermeneutics that a work should express the complete truth, and tests its viability in the work "Sutras of Mountains and Waters" by the Zen monk Dogen. First, I note four contradictory points in Dogen's sutras. Next, I find the source of their contradiction in the Platonic understanding of language, based on a model of visual perception, which introduces a duality between the observer and objective reality. So, I present a new conception of language based on a model of bodily perception and a dynamic understanding of reality, which resolves the four contradictions in Dogen's sutras. In the end, I look at how the adoption of this new conception of language reflects on the approach in Gadamer's hermeneutics.

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