The Adornment of the Middle Way: a philosophical logic of the communicational possibilities under explored up to now

• Grant number: 13/10944-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: March 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Theory of Communication
• Principal Investigator: Ciro Juvenal Rodrigues Marcondes Filho
• Grantee: Ana Paula Martins Gouveia
• Supervisor: Matthew T. Kapstein
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/20781-9 - The Adornment of the Middle Way: A Philosophical Logic of the Communicational Possibilities that Has Not Been Explored., BP.PD

Abstract

In this post-doctoral project, I intend to translate, comment, contextualize and update (in the sense of apply and relate it with the specific issue to be developed here) one of the most significant texts of the Philosophy and logic in Tibetan Buddhist, and discuss the direct relationship with this New Theory of Communication, developed by Ciro Marcondes Filho, particularly in regard with the "quasi method" proposed by him, the Metáporo. The text to be worked, The Adornment of the Middle Way (Tib.: dbu ma rgyan), was originally written in Sanskrit and, like many of the texts of this period, has its original disappeared, yet its translation for Tibetan was guided and supervised by the author, Shantarakshita, an Indian prince from the eighth century. The objective of this project is to identify how the logic of manifestation of the phenomena and the actual possibilities of communication among sentient beings, from the perspective presented in the text of Shantarakshita touches, make evident or even expands aspects of the New Theory of Communication proposed by Ciro Marcondes Filho. Moreover, I consider relevant to emphasize the importance of "bringing forth" a universe of knowledge from the Tibetan/Indian Philosophy, that, when mentioned, is generally treated in a very simplistic way or, sometimes, even in a very shallow way. The proposal here is to recover these texts and make this ancient knowledge more accessible to researchers both in communication and from other areas that may be interested in this subject that stills largely unexplored in the Brazilian context. (AU)