Comparative Philosophy Volume 11, No. 1 (2020): 46-68 Open Access / ISSN 2151-6014 / www.comparativephilosophy.org https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2020).110107
THE “INDIRECT MESSAGE” IN KIERKEGAARD AND CHÁN BUDDHISM ZDENĚK ZACPAL
ABSTRACT: The article seeks to analyse Kierkegaard’s indirecte Meddelelse, which the author proposes to translate as ‘indirect message’. It attempts to consider and illuminate this concept and its general characteristics, types and cases in Kierkegaard's work. They are to serve as a baseline for investigations of indirect messages in Buddhism, especially the famous ‘public cases’ (gong-àn / kōan 公案) of the Chán Buddhists. The author tries to specify indirect messages on both sides of the cultural divide in terms of some Western philosophers. Kierkegaard’s theoretical rationale for his indirect message is profound, sophisticated and appropriate to the theoretical investigation of the Chán public cases. Chán representatives do not possess such pertinent tools for the formal analysis of their own or other indirect messages. However, their indirect messages are impressive in their formal diversity; their variety is, unlike Kierkegaard’s counterparts, not limited by orthodox theological residues. Keywords: Chán Buddhism, communicative aims, conventional and conversational implicature, God-man’s messages, gong-àn, humour, immediacy after reflection, indirecte Meddelelse [indirect message], irony, kenshō, Kierkegaard, leap, (non-)dualism, objective thinking and pseudonymous authorship, performatives, perlocution, subjective thinker, true human of no rank
1. INTRODUCTION The term indirecte Meddelelse is one of the key, central concepts of the Danish thinker Søren Aabye Kierkegaard. Thus far this term has usually been translated into English as indirect communication. In English, ‘communication’ is a broad concept which can be and often is symmetrical. In Kierkegaard’s work the Danish terms Meddelelse and Communication each have a different meaning. The term Communication is also used by Kierkegaard, but less frequently and plays a more peripheral role. In contrast with the Danish Communication, Kierkegaard’s Meddelelse means something asymmetric (message giver). In his journals and in Practice in Christianity, both of which shall be analysed below, Kierkegaard means by Meddelelse a markedly one-sided interaction ________________________ ZACPAL, ZDENĚK: translator, writer, and doctoral student of philosophy at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. Email: zacpal@email.cz
Comparative Philosophy 11.1 (2020)
ZACPAL