Absence

Western thinking has long been dominated by essence, by a preoccupation with that which dwells in itself and delimits itself from the other. By contrast, Far Eastern thought is centred not on essence but on absence. The fundamental topos of Far Eastern thinking is not being but ‘the way’ (dao), which lacks the solidity and fixedness of essence. The difference between essence and absence is the difference between being and path, between dwelling and wandering. ‘A Zen monk should be without fixed abode, like the clouds, and without fixed support, like water’, said the Japanese Zen master Dōgen.

Drawing on this fundamental distinction between essence and absence, Byung-Chul Han explores the differences between Western and Far Eastern philosophy, aesthetics, architecture and art, shedding fresh light on a culture of absence that may at first sight appear strange and unfamiliar to those in the West whose ways of thinking have been shaped for centuries by the preoccupation with essence.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Essencing and Absencing – Living Nowhere

Closed and Open – Spaces of Absencing

Light and Shadow – The Aesthetics of Absencing

Knowledge and Daftness – On the Way to Paradise

Land and Sea – Strategies of Thinking

Doing and Happening: Beyond Active and Passive

Greeting and Bowing – Friendliness


Notes ‘After reading Heidegger’s and Derrida’s critiques of the “metaphysics of presence” that pervades the Western tradition, do you find yourself asking: But what’s the alternative? If so, this breathtakingly bold and inspiringly insightful book is for you. You will find it more far-reaching as it deftly escorts you into the philosophical and aesthetic heart of the Far East.’
Bret W. Davis, author of Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism Byung-Chul Han is a full-time writer and the author of more than twenty books including The Scent of Time, Saving Beauty and The Burnout Society.