Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School

Introduction: Conversations on an Ox Path

Introduction: Conversations on an Ox Path The principal aim of this volume is to promote dialogue between Western and Japanese philosophy, and more specifically between Continental philosophy and the Kyoto School. In the West, this dialogue is still at a nascent stage. In Japan, it began with great intensity upon the opening of this Far Eastern island nation to the West in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and it continues unabated to this day. While (with a few exceptions) Western philosophers have concerned themselves mostly with their own tradition, Japanese philosophers have been avidly seeking to build dialogical bridges between their own conceptual and linguistic horizons and those of the West. The Eurocentrism of the West has in fact spread to many sectors of Japanese society as well, academia included. When the Japanese begin to radically philosophize, however, rather than stopping at mere importation and reflection on Western schools of thought, they inevitably also embark on a hermeneutical retrieval of their own traditions of thought. No group of thinkers has done this more ardently and productively than the Kyoto School, which has justifiably become the most famous group of modern Japanese philosophers.1 Its members are noteworthy not only for the rigor and originality of their individual thought, but also for their shared attempt to think in dialogue with the West while keeping firmly in touch with their own native traditions, particularly those of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Kyoto School is a name given to a group of twentieth- (and now twenty-first-) century philosophers who are united by the fact that they are all inspired by Nishida Kitarō2 (1870–1945), who is widely considered to be Japan’s first and still greatest modern philosopher, as well as by the fact that they all studied and/or taught at Kyoto University. Nishida’s junior colleague, Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962), as well as many of his students, most notably Nishitani Keiji (1900–1990), are generally considered members of the School, as are more recent thinkers such as Nishitani’s student Ueda Shizuteru (b. 1926). It is important to point out that the School is not constituted by any dogmatically accepted creed. Although it can be said to be held together by 2   |   Japanese and Continental Philosophy an evolving set of shared concerns and vocabulary, even such common terms as “absolute nothingness” are often the subject of contention (see for example the intense debate that took place between Nishida and Tanabe, as explicated by Sugimoto in chapter 3). What all the members of the School can be said to have in common, however, is a firm commitment to engaging in East-West dialogue on a rigorously philosophical level. Over the last few decades, the importance of the Kyoto School has become increasingly recognized, and the School is now studied and researched in many North American and European universities. A number of translations , monographs, and edited volumes have appeared in response to a growing demand for primary and secondary sources on the Kyoto School. Thus far, however, the available literature has been for the most part limited to introduction and interpretation,3 or has focused on the relevance of the Kyoto School to Buddhist-Jewish-Christian dialogue,4 or has been concerned with critically assessing the politics and political thought of the School during World War II.5 Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School is the first anthology to be fully committed to developing philosophical exchanges between the Kyoto School and modern and contemporary Western philosophers in the Continental tradition.6 Such a volume is not only overdue, it is also, we think, a most appropriate response to the philosophical and dialogical overtures made by the Kyoto School itself. It needs to be stressed that the members of the Kyoto School thought of themselves first and foremost as philosophers, rather than as religious, cultural , or political theorists. Moreover, the philosophies of the Kyoto School are themselves inherently dialogical, commuting between Eastern and Western philosophical and religious traditions. The original Kyoto School thinkers were conversant in particular with continental European schools of thought such as German idealism, Marxism, existentialism, hermeneutics, and phenomenology . Contemporary successors to the Kyoto School in Japan, including several contributors to the present volume, have continued this tradition by engaging in dialogue with recent schools and figures in Continental philosophy . Most of the essays in this volume develop dialogues with the three central figures of the Kyoto School: Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani. Some essays...