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THE MYSTERY OF EXISTENCE

Broadcast date: Sunday 12-10-2003 14:00 - 14:30 ned. 1
Repeat: Saterday 18-10-2003 13:15 - 13:45 ned. 1
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Ulrich Libbrecht (1928) is a mathematician and philosopher. Early on he had doubts about the foundations of Western thought and began to study Oriental philosophy and religion. Because he felt the language constituted an obstacle to understanding the original texts, he studied Sanskrit and Chinese.
He wrote a three-volume standard work, Introduction to Comparative Philosophy, in which he develops a model by which to compare Western thought, Buddhism and Taoism.

Libbrecht sees a strong affinity with mysticism in Buddhism. “There just happen to be things we cannot know, no matter how much scientific research we dedicate to it. We are proud of having been able to unravel the structure of DNA, but ignore the fact that ‘something’ or at least ‘nature’ invented that same DNA structure. We remain ignorant creatures who at best can become conscious of the fact that we know so little”.

Direction: Alexander Oey