Uncanny Encountering between the East and the West: The Search for Oriental Eyes

East Asian and Western ways of thinking are two heterogeneous forms of viewing the world, which can never be separated from the subject of epistemology. As a matter of fact, current academic trends in the field of humanities such as postmodernism or totality issues are, with no exception, functioning based on the particular a priori form of positing the relationship between ‘I’ and the world. Along this line, careful thought needs to be given to the true essence of the world: i.e., can we prove its presence existing independently from our cognition? Should it be true that this world that we’re living in demonstrates not so much materialism but speculation, it cannot but be reconstructed a posteriori via our particular epistemological eyes. Seen from this perspective, any critical attempt to sublimate or critically overcome those pathological remnants of modernity should begin with our careful investigation of those invisible eyes which have been secretively facilitating that crude and inhumane rational of social Darwinism. This paper serves to critically illuminate ‘(post)modernity’ issues in terms of Taoist philosophy. In conclusion, the possibility of viewing ‘I’ and the world on another epistemological dimension will be briefly discussed.