The Twofold Phenomenon in Naming: A Reflection from the Confucian-Taoist Yin-Yang Dialectical, Monistic Perspective

Abstract

In the evolution of the phenomenological inquiry, predominant in the West, the present trend has been characterized in Strasser’s Phenomenology and the Human Sciences as hermeneutic, intuitive and dialectical. If this contention holds true, then the Eastern ideas could converge with this trend in what may be modified as a view of a twofold phenomenon (Yin-Yang) in a dialectical relationship of complementarity in contradiction for describing the being and becoming of world phenomena. Within such a framework neither the idealistic view nor the materialistic view is adequate to interpret the unique power of the mind which operates as a mediator, synthesizer, harmonizer and creator to effect our cognition in its existence, whatever the purpose may be. This paper attempts to use the primary step of our cognition — name creating, name using and name content — to illustrate this monistic approach and point out the potential in which the meeting of the minds between the East and the West could occur.