Project MUSE®: Journal of Japanese Philosophy - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Japanese Philosophy.daily12026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (2013) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Japanese PhilosophyTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Japanese Philosophy2327-02092327-0195Latest articles in Journal of Japanese Philosophy. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Special Issue: The Possibility of “Tokyo School” Philosophy
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913626
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The city of Tokyo is home to a number of prominent academic centers of both historical and contemporary significance, including the University of Tokyo founded in 1877. However, unlike the University of Kyoto and the “Kyoto School,” the diverse network of scholars based in Tokyo never coalesced around a “Tokyo School” with a shared philosophical identity. This special issue invites critical engagement with the lineage of Tokyo-based philosophers. The editorial team would like to thank our guest editors Nakajima Takahiro and Maki Sato.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallSpecial Issue: The Possibility of “Tokyo School” Philosophy2023-12-01text/htmlen-USSpecial Issue: The Possibility of “Tokyo School” Philosophy2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®16452026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Guest Editor’s Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913627
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「東京学派」とは聞きなれない名称であろう。日本研究において「京都学派」は大変よく知られている。たとえ「京都学派」が、「無の論理は論理ではない」と述べた上で、戸坂潤が発明した批判的な概念であったとしても、現在ではそれは西田幾多郎や田辺元を中心とした一大哲学運動として世界的に認知されている。ところが、西田にしても田辺にしてももともとは東京帝国大学で学んだ学生であった。また、戦前においては、井上哲次郎から桑木厳翼へと続く東京帝国大学哲学科の流れは、当時の社会状況と相互に影響しあって、一定の意義を示していたのである。また、大森荘蔵、廣松渉、坂部恵といった戦後の東京大学の哲学者たちは、「京都学派」の問題系を乗り越えることを重視していた。この特別号では、発見的概念として「東京学派」を用いて、戦前・戦後におけるその意義と広がりを探究することにした。それは東京大学もしくは東京帝国大学に限定されたものではなく、それ以外の東京圏の大学との相互交流も含まれるものである。「京都学派」に対しては、政治との距離をどう測るかがしばしば議論されてきたが、「東京学派」は政治により密着したものである。日本の近代の哲学の有している政治性そして倫理性を考えるのであれば、やはり「東京学派」の議論は避けて通る
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallGuest Editor’s Introduction2023-12-01text/htmlen-USGuest Editor’s Introduction2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®61122026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Tokyo School of Philosophy? A Preliminary Reflection
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913628
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Philosophical circles worldwide have recognized the so-called Kyoto School for decades. Can we also speak of a modern Tokyo School and, if so, of its distinguishing nature? That question drives most articles in this journal’s special issue. Before beginning my inquiry, however, I have two preliminary questions. First, why is it important to ask whether there is, was, or even ever will be something legitimately considered a Tokyo School? Second, how do the Japanese think in terms of schools, and what words might specifically designate a school of philosophy? I will try to answer these questions, not in an abstract or general way, but one that uses the Japanese cultural context for its point of departure.Let us start
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallTokyo School of Philosophy? A Preliminary Reflection2023-12-01text/htmlen-USTokyo School of Philosophy? A Preliminary Reflection2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®725562026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01The Influence of Chinese Sources on the Formation of Philosophy in the Tokyo School: Focusing on Kuwaki Gen’yoku
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913629
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After the first generation of Inoue Tetsujirō (1856–1944) and his colleagues at Tokyo Imperial University, the second generation was represented by Kuwaki Gen’yoku (1874–1946). Kuwaki was a generation educated in the midst of the establishment of philosophy as an academic discipline, and he was a little younger than Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945). When Raphael von Koebel (1848–1923) retired in 1914, Kuwaki moved from Kyoto Imperial University to become a professor at Tokyo Imperial University to succeed him. In the same year, Nishida Kitarō became a professor of philosophy from a professor of religious studies at Kyoto Imperial University, where Kuwaki had been a professor of philosophy. This is the reason why two of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallThe Influence of Chinese Sources on the Formation of Philosophy in the Tokyo School: Focusing on Kuwaki Gen’yoku2023-12-01text/htmlen-USThe Influence of Chinese Sources on the Formation of Philosophy in the Tokyo School: Focusing on Kuwaki Gen’yoku2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®818352026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Race, Buddhism, and the Formation of Oriental (Tōyō) Philosophy in Meiji Japan
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913630
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This paper examines the discursive efforts by Inoue Tetsujirō井上哲次郎, the foremost figure in the establishment of philosophical study in Meiji Japan, to de-Westernize Buddhism for the purpose of redefining the Orient (Tōyō 東洋) and constructing Oriental philosophy in contribution to nation-state building in Japan1. Born in 1855 to a doctor’s family in Kyushu, Inoue studied Confucian classics as well as English and Western thought at a young age before being selected to study at the newly established Tokyo University (Tokyo daigaku 東京大学), which was renamed Imperial University (Teikoku daigaku 帝国大学) in 1886 and then Tokyo Imperial University (Tokyo teikoku daigaku 東京帝国大学) in 1897. Upon graduation, Inoue taught
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallRace, Buddhism, and the Formation of Oriental (Tōyō) Philosophy in Meiji Japan2023-12-01text/htmlen-USRace, Buddhism, and the Formation of Oriental (Tōyō) Philosophy in Meiji Japan2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®751312026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Kiyozawa Manshi’s Two Theories of Evolution and Their Western Inspiration
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913631
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If one solely were to confine the scope of one’s inquiry into the defining trait of a “Tokyo School of Philosophy” to the years immediately following the founding of Tokyo University in 1877, it would be hard to escape the conclusion that philosophy there at the time was determined almost entirely by the dominant intellectual wind blowing through its lecture halls, namely that of evolutionary theory. Katō Hiroyuki (1836–1916), president of the university from 1890 to 1893, was one of its staunchest advocates, doing much to foster the spread of ideas that would today be typified as “Social-Darwinian.”1 Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), undoubtedly the Meiji period’s most successful public philosopher, came to embrace many
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallKiyozawa Manshi’s Two Theories of Evolution and Their Western Inspiration2023-12-01text/htmlen-USKiyozawa Manshi’s Two Theories of Evolution and Their Western Inspiration2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®773132026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Ōmori Shōzō and Kotodama Theory: How Can We Overcome the Need for Bodily Encounters?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913632
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Ōmori Shōzō is known for his theory of tachi-araware monism. Tachiaraware monism is his attempted counter-argument to the Cartesian dualism of the object–subject divide, or in his words, a divide between physical (butsuri, mono, science, object) and non-physical consciousness (ishiki, koto, perception, incident), perception (chikaku, 知覚) and conception (shikō, 思考). His concept of Kasane-egaki is also often cited as a core concept of his theory of time.1 The main aim of this paper is to first overview the works of Ōmori since there is only a limited amount of his translated work so far.2 Consecutively, the paper focuses on Ōmori’s theory of kotodama and its related arguments with an intention to expand his concept
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallŌmori Shōzō and Kotodama Theory: How Can We Overcome the Need for Bodily Encounters?2023-12-01text/htmlen-USŌmori Shōzō and Kotodama Theory: How Can We Overcome the Need for Bodily Encounters?2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®728362026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Guest Editor’s Concluding Remarks
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913633
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本特別号は戦前・戦後の東京、特に東京帝国大学、東京大学を活躍の場に据えた哲学者たちの智の営みに光をあて特集した初の試みである。「東京学派」との掛け声に対して、いったいどれくらいの論文が集まるのだろうか、蓋を開けてみるまでは全く分からなかった。特別号編者の一人としては、東京という場で行われた様々な哲学者たちによる知的営みのうち、いつの時代の、どの哲学者が研究対 象となっているのかを知ることは大変興味深かった。巻頭論文としては、『日本哲学小史(Engaging Japanese Philosophy: A Short History)』を上梓されたオハイオ州立大学名誉教授のトマス・カスリス先生に、2019年1月下旬に東京大学東洋文化研究所にて行われた国際ワークショップ「日本哲学と東京大学の哲学」、また同年11月下旬に東京大学本郷キャンパスにおいて開催された集中講義でお話しいただいた内容に基づき、基調論文を執筆いただいた。快くお引き受け下さったことに、ここに心から感謝の意
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallGuest Editor’s Concluding Remarks2023-12-01text/htmlen-USGuest Editor’s Concluding Remarks2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®65122026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Toward a Dialectics of Emptiness: Overcoming Nihilism and Combatting Mechanization in Nishitani Keiji’s Postwar Thought
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913634
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In his postwar writings on nihilism in modernity, Nishitani Keiji (1900–90) does not explicitly articulate the structure of the relationship between the mechanization of the world and nihilism. Instead, he discusses mechanization with respect to his critique of modern worldviews such as atheism, scientism, and liberalism and how they have contributed to the advent of nihilism and the loss of human autonomy in modern Europe and Japan.1 According to Nishitani, before the advent of scientism and the subsequent progression of unfettered technological development, pre-Western-Enlightenment and pre-Meiji-period worldviews consisted of a fundamental embodied connection between a people or culture and their spiritual
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallToward a Dialectics of Emptiness: Overcoming Nihilism and Combatting Mechanization in Nishitani Keiji’s Postwar Thought2023-12-01text/htmlen-USToward a Dialectics of Emptiness: Overcoming Nihilism and Combatting Mechanization in Nishitani Keiji’s Postwar Thought2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®994042026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism (禅道の千路) by Bret W. Davis (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913635
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There is no shortage of books on Zen from almost every imaginable angle. And so, what makes Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism (禅道の千路) by Bret W. Davis unique enough to take up and read, and even re-read? And who should read it? The answers to these questions depend on who you are and what you are looking for. If you are simply curious about what Zen philosophy and practice is or is not, a student, a professor looking for a textbook on Zen Buddhism for your course, or a practitioner seeking to deepen your understanding of what it is that you are practicing, then you will almost certainly enjoy and profit greatly from this book. Davis brings to the page over thirty years of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallZen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism (禅道の千路) by Bret W. Davis (review)2023-12-01text/htmlen-USZen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism (禅道の千路) by Bret W. Davis (review)2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®204182026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01Reply to Laÿna Droz’s Review of Watsuji on Nature: Japanese Philosophy in the Wake of Heidegger
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/913636
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I would like to begin by thanking the Journal of Japanese Philosophy for making space in these pages for a review of my monograph Watsuji on Nature: Japanese Philosophy in the Wake of Heidegger. Although book reviews do not usually receive a reply from the author—much less one as lengthy as the article that follows—one seemed necessary in this instance because my ideas, unfortunately, have been seriously mis-represented here. Moreover, the number and kinds of misreadings, mistakes, misunderstandings, and omissions are so extensive that even a brief attempt to address the main points at issue is no small task. But the primary problem is that the reviewer contends that I say the opposite of what I actually maintain
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/634/image/coversmallReply to Laÿna Droz’s Review of Watsuji on Nature: Japanese Philosophy in the Wake of Heidegger2023-12-01text/htmlen-USReply to Laÿna Droz’s Review of Watsuji on Nature: Japanese Philosophy in the Wake of Heidegger2023-12-012023TWOProject MUSE®628462026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002023-12-01