Lots of thanks for your references, comments, bibliography and suggestions.
I have now enough data to work on.
Dr. Renshaw:
> While I think it would be fruitless to argue with Xavier's last thought in
> this context, it seems odd to me that Soto Zen seems to be so popular in
> the West, something also somewhat amazing to my colleagues here in Japan.
> Lately, on some "academic" lists, I have noticed a proclivity to link "Zen"
> to epistemological issues in a number of areas. Discussions I have seen on
> this so far have been far from fruitful; they seem to lead to nothing but
> "don't you see?" sorts of arguments accompanied with "if you don't see,
> then I can't show you" and other forms of "true belief" rather than any
> kind of communicable "knowledge" or "methodological" base.
No, no, no way. I'd really feel very uncomfortable if that became the case.
This is not the place to have arguments of this kind, and I wasn't looking
for it, of course.
Yours is the kind of feedback I was looking for. Thanks a lot!
Historia Matematica has grown, no doubt, as a professional and highly
scholarship forum. I put this meditation as a sort of attachment to my original
question... I think any further reflections or data about it (which I'll
really appreciate) should be addressed to my personal email address:
With best regards,
-- Xavier