Yukiko Kuwayama - Panel 12 ENOJP Paris
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2018-03-02

“Being With and In Language: Understanding Ueda Shizuteru’s Concept of Urwort ( 根源語 )” — Yukiko Kuwayama, University of Hildesheim 

In my presentation, I address Ueda Shizuteru’s understanding of language in general and put it into dialogue with Kant’s epistemology. Ueda begins by dividing language into two distinct dimensions, the real and the virtual ( 実と虚 ), which can be compared with Kant’s conceptual pair of the sensible world and the intelligible world (Sinnenwelt und intelligible Welt). According to Ueda, the real is descriptive, while the virtual is poetic and thus able to describe the apparently impossible. Despite this view which divides language into two types, Ueda coins a provisional term, Urwort ( 根源語 ) , which comprises pure experience, our consciousness of experience pure experience, and our being with language itself. I want to clarify this term, because it is crucial to Ueda’s whole understanding of language. If we follow the way Ueda presents his understanding of language, we notice a characteristic which the Kyoto School as well as Zen Buddhism share: an approach to language which is both differentiating (real vs virtual) and undifferentiating (Urwort), and which is better known by Nishida’s term “absolute contradictory self-identity.” We must ask ourselves two questions: Are we to under- stand this view of language as the end of thinking? Where do we go after this approach? I indicate its normative character and the way it orients us towards practice: namely, that we should understand ourselves as being both with language (together with but distinct from it) and in language (always already one with it). However, there is the danger of thinking of only language’s normative aspect and forgetting its freeing aspect—how the virtual dimension of language opens possibilities to us. These two aspects of normativity and freedom are yet another bridge to Kant through his ethics. 

This talk took place at the 3rd Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy in Paris, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris 1) and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) from November 2-4, 2017.

For more informations: http://enojp.org/ http://chisokudopublications.com/

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