TIME in American and East Asian Thinking

This study explores the topic of time from a comparative, ,trans-cultural' perspective. It points out structural parallels (isomorphisms) between interpretations of reality that are distinctive of the two cultural realms North America and East Asia, emphasizing their common post- or non-metaphysical visions. Transcendentalist, Pragmatist, and (Zen) Buddhist ways of conceptualizing temporality differ radically from the established Western, primarily Christian-shaped ,abstract' concept of linear, teleological time. They are based on the intuitive insight that Being ,is' time or, "impermanence" (Skt.: ,anitya'), and hence do not postulate the long-established Western, i.e. predominantly European, dualism of Being ,and' time. Like the prominent philosopher and sinologist Fran�ois Jullien, the present study thus raises and deals with the fundamental question whether it is indispensable to think 'time' abstractly conceptually in "terms" of a separate category, dimension, or homogeneous flow.