The thinking of the hand

Heidegger claimed that thinking is the true action. What does action mean when viewed in its own context - as an effectiveness and realization of the hand? This question leads to the boundaries of our cultural knowledge and opens a special access to cultural difference: In his conversation about language between a questioner and a Japanese person, Heidegger sketches the image of a "Japanese hand." This volume explores this topic through a philosophical, literary, and cultural studies lens, tracing the uniqueness of such a Japanese hand through numerous examples from tradition and contemporary life. Everyday actions such as writing, buying, loving, or photographing reveal themselves in relation to the hand as indicators of a different finitude and a different relationship to time. Japanese techniques are analyzed - beyond an esoteric exoticism - as action techniques. As such, they also provide opportunities for practicing the technicality of a thinking that can no longer rely on any cultural identity in the age of a globalized world.