A Yogācāra Buddhist Theory of Metaphor

Roy Tzohar (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

296 Seiten

2018
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-066439-8 (ISBN)

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The Yogacara school of Buddhist thought claims that all language-use is metaphorical. Exploring the profound implications of this assertion, Roy Tzhoar makes the case for viewing the Yogacara account as a full-fledged theory of meaning, one that is not merely linguistic, but also applicable both in the world and in texts.

Buddhist philosophy is fundamentally ambivalent toward language. Language is paradoxically seen as both obstructive and necessary for liberation. In this book, Roy Tzohar delves into the ingenious response to this tension from the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism: that all language-use is metaphorical. Exploring the profound implications of this claim, Tzohar makes the case for viewing the Yogācāra account as a full-fledged theory of meaning, one that is not merely linguistic, but also applicable both in the world as well as in texts.

Despite the overwhelming visibility of figurative language in Buddhist philosophical texts, this is the first sustained and systematic attempt to present an indigenous Buddhist theory of metaphor. By grounding the Yogācāra pan-metaphorical claim in a broader intellectual context, of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools, the book uncovers an intense philosophical conversation about metaphor and language that reaches across sectarian lines. Tzohar's analysis radically reframes the Yogācāra controversy with the Madhyamaka school of philosophy, sheds light on the Yogācāra application of particular metaphors, and explicates the school's unique understanding of experience.

Roy Tzohar is a Senior Lecturer in the East and South Asian studies Department at Tel Aviv University.

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction
1. What do Buddhists have to say on figurative language?
2. A bit of methodology: on determining the relevant textual field and handling intertextual-borrowing.
3. An Outline

PART 1

Chapter I
Metaphor as Absence:
The case of the Early Nyaya and Mimamsa.

Chapter II
Metaphor as Perceptual Illusion:
Figurative Meaning in Bhartrhari's Vakyapadiya

PART 2

Chapter III
It's a Bear... No, It's a Man... No, it's a Metaphor!
Asanga on the Proliferation of Figures

Chapter IV
The Seeds of the Pan-Figurative View:
Metaphor in Other Buddhist Sources

PART 3

Chapter V
What It All Comes Down To:
Sthiramati's Pan-Metaphorical Claim and Its Implications

Chapter VI
Conversing With a Buddha:
The Yogacara Conception of Linguistic and Perceptual Meaning
as a Means for Overcoming Incommensurability

Conclusion:
The Alterity of Metaphor

Appendix A:
Translation and exposition of Vakyapadiya 2.250-256

Appendix B:
A Running translation of the Vakyapadiya 2.285-2.297

References

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	12.06.2018
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	239 x 157 mm
Gewicht	499 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Östliche Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
ISBN-10	0-19-066439-8 / 0190664398
ISBN-13	978-0-19-066439-8 / 9780190664398
Zustand	Neuware