Cheng and Gadamer: Lao-Tzu and Heraclitus – Phenomenology as Ontology

What is it about?

The nature of things becomes the language of things when the hermeneut enacts the structure of the cosmos that Gadamer shares with Cheng by way of regard for the origins of their traditions and sources for renewal in Heraclitus and Lao-Tzu (Daoism) respectively. Both Gadamer and Cheng enact a method of interpretation that is coordinated with the structure of a cosmogenic view of the world anchored in Heraclitus and Lao-Tzu (Daoism) respectively. This in turn allows for developing other affinities between them that pivot on comprehensive observation and attunement, Logos and the One and the many, the moving structure of reality in creative acts of interpretation.

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Photo by Evan Karageorgos on Unsplash

Photo by Evan Karageorgos on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Gadamer's ontology of the One and many hidden within the ontic surface of contradictions has been suppressed for the most part. Cheng's onto-generative hermeneutics is used to leverage this dimension of Gadamer's thought and thereby close the alleged divide between Western and Chinese philosophy while also revising the relevance of the ancients to contemporary hermeneutics.