| dc.description.abstract | This thesis has two main goals. First, it aims to interpret (part of) the philosophy of Kūkai—the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan—in terms familiar to the analytic philosopher (something that is unavailable in contemporary literature). Second, it aims to discuss how his doctrine provides an original response to a twofold philosophical problem: whether we are in a position to access reality in our experience and whether our language is capable of describing it. After providing an introduction to Buddhist thought in general and to the Shingon school in particular (Chap. 1), I will turn to formulate the latter problem through the philosophy of another Buddhist school, Yogācāra, particularly by referring to a text of one of its most influential philosophers: Vasubandhu. The formulation will require introducing the Buddhist doctrine of the two realities, which distinguishes between ultimate reality (reality in itself) and conventional reality (reality qua our experience). I will explain how, following the proposed interpretation of Vasubandhu’s view, we are neither in a position to access ultimate reality with our senses nor in a position to describe it (Chap. 2). Then, I will turn to Kūkai, starting with a discussion of his metaphysical view interpreted on the basis of textual evidence. His metaphysics has two central characteristics: (1) it is a peculiar form of idealism according to which there is only one universal mental substance, and what we consider materiality is (roughly) nothing but its external aspect; (2) it conceives all events and transformations happening in the universe as actions of a pantheistic deity oriented to the revelation of reality itself to sentient beings. Both points will be useful to understand Kūkai’s response (Chap. 3). The last chapter will provide a translation of the doctrine of the two realities in Kūkai’s terms and interpret his claim that reality is the sermon of the universal deity Mahāvairocana. We will then formulate Kūkai’s response to the Yogācāra challenge, which will articulate in two steps. First, Kūkai claims that, as the sermon of Mahāvairocana, reality reveals itself to us, so we are able to access it. Second, he claims that the semantics of our language is grounded in the semantics of the universal language of Mahāvairocana, and for this reason, our language can describe reality effectively (Chap. 4). | eng |