World of the Stone from Heidegger's Three-Fold Thesis to Iwakura (in Japanese Culture

Abstract

Here, we examine the relation between stone and world, in a philosophical-cultural context which is shaped by the experience of stone being either worldless or worldful. On one side, we focus on M. Heidegger's understanding regarding the worldlessness of stone and on the other side, we present stone's cultural worldfulness within Japanese culture. We chose these two instances because they hold clear expressions of how a stone can be experienced worldful or worldless. Within our examination, we do not approach the matter through comparative study (such as Asia vs West), because it is also possible to find suitable examples on reverse ends too. Throughout the article, we investigate the stone and its relation with specific cultural elements such as the idea of ki [(sic)], notion of Zen Gardens ((sic)(sic)(sic); Karesansui), and concepts of tama ((sic) or (sic)) and kokoro ((sic)), to present how these elements render the stone worldful.