Thinking, Language and World View in the Chinese world

This essay attempts to shed new light on the relation between language and world-view from the perspective of East Asia. Twentieth century European philosophers have often thematized the encounter with alien world-views and ways of living, and pondered on the multiplicity of human cultures. In the fields of hermeneutics, phenomenology and deconstruction, the alienness of the other even has become a sort of leitmotif for philosophers. And yet, the difference between the familiar and the alien has almost always been debated in the European languages of philosophy, not by directly engaging the philosophical and religious discourses of the other. In my essay, I want to re-think the relation between language and world-view by engaging with Chinese philosophical and religious discourses.