Philosophy East & West, 63:3, 2013, 322-334 Contradictions in Dōgen Koji Tanaka* Department of Philosophy University of Auckland k.tanaka@auckland.ac.nz Abstract In their article ‘The Way of the Dialetheist: Contradictions in Buddhism’, Deguchi, Garfield and Priest argue that some (though not all) of the contradictions that appear in Buddhist texts should be accepted. An examination of their argument depends on what sort(s) of negation is (are) used in the texts. In order to see apparently contradictory statements as affirmations of true contradictions, we must assume that ‘not' (or its variance) is used as a contradiction forming operator. In this paper, I examine the conception of negation(s) that is (are) salient in the writings of Dō gen and argue that he would not agree that his sentences are to be considered, and accepted, as contradictory. 1. Contradictions in Buddhism There are a number of texts in the Buddhist traditions that contain apparently contradictory statements. In their article ‘The Way of the Dialetheist: Contradictions in Buddhism’, Deguchi, Garfield and Priest (DGP) argue that some (though not all) of the contradictions that appear in Buddhist texts should be accepted. Armed with modern developments in paraconsistent logics, 1 they argue that one need not draw the conclusion that these contradictions signify irrationalism. They contend that Buddhist thinkers themselves seem to * I would like to thank Yasuo Deguchi, Jay Garfield and Graham Priest for their rigorous comments on the version of this paper I presented in the workshop held at Kyoto University. I would also like to thank Yasuo Deguchi for organising the workshop. Many thanks also go to Teramae Jōin at Kōdaiji in Kyoto for our long conversation on this very issue which we had a couple of days after the workshop but also for all conversations we have had over the last few years. His agreement with my reading of Dōgen certainly boosted my confidence. 1 For an introduction to paraconsistent logics, see, for example, Priest (2002) and Priest and Tanaka (2009).