The Kyoto School: An Introduction by Robert E. Carter (review)

Robert Carter’s skill at making complex philosophical concepts comprehensible is once again in evidence in this excellent book.¹ Thomas Kasulis is correct when he states in the foreword that Carter “performs a great service to the study of modern Japanese philosophy in the West” (p. ix). The Kyoto School: An Introduction fills a niche in Kyoto school literature, which—while rich with technical and comparative studies for the specialist—has until now lacked an introductory text for the general reader.

The foreword provides some historical background concerning Japanese philosophy in general and presents Kasulis’s own gloss on Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962), Nishitani Keiji (1900–1990), and Watsuji Tetsurō (1889–1960). In the chapters that follow, Carter makes the work of these key figures in modern Japanese philosophy accessible and compelling, and he succeeds in his aim to “make available to the general reader four rich and exciting cross-cultural explorations which continue to challenge and inform readers both in Japan and abroad” (p. xix).

In his introduction, Carter gives a brief history of Japanese philosophy’s encounter with Western philosophy and how this led to the development of the Kyoto school. He then discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not there is any such thing as Japanese philosophy. He also identifies what he believes to be most distinctive about Japanese philosophy: its refusal to separate itself from religion. “The Western emphasis on reason alone,” he writes, “tended to make philosophy a ‘purely cerebral affair,’ while the starting point for the Japanese was that knowledge is also an experiential affair which can be achieved and honed through practice rather than reason alone” (p. 7). Among members of the Kyoto school, this experiential element most often reveals itself in two ways. The first is in their concern with how philosophy permeates everyday life. This concern is highlighted throughout Carter’s book to a degree that is not commonly found in the more technical studies of the Kyoto school—indeed, this is part of the book’s appeal. The second is in their engagement with Buddhism: all of the philosophers discussed in the book practiced or studied Buddhism in one form or another, and Carter traces the influence of Buddhism on each thinker’s view of philosophy as practice and as a relevant force in everyday life.

Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani are the central figures whose inclusion in the Kyoto school no one would question, but Carter also includes Watsuji (who is often considered marginal to the main group), for several reasons: Watsuji was brought into Kyoto University by Nishida; he was preoccupied with the theme of nothingness, which permeates the Kyoto school’s work; and he made notable contributions to Japanese ethics and culture. Watsuji’s work, Carter argues, “while on the periphery of the Kyoto school, enriches an understanding of a time in Japanese history when philosophical ideas were generated in so very many directions. Watsuji was an important contributor to Japan’s philosophical renaissance” (p. 10). Carter notes also that he chose these four figures because of the availability of their work in translation and because he wished to present “a more comprehensive view of topics and issues” (p. 9) than more technical studies, which tend either to focus on one philosopher or one aspect of Kyoto school philosophy or to concern themselves with detailed arguments about who should be included at all.

The chapters have a common structure: each includes an intellectual biography, with a brief discussion of the often vexed question of the political views of each philosopher, followed by a discussion of key works, themes, and concepts. Carter also traces the influence these thinkers had on one another so that the reader can see how Kyoto school thought developed and how the key figures are united by their concern with nothingness, Buddhist practice, and a connection to Kyoto University or to Nishida’s work. While...