20th Century Japanese Philosophy

Open peer commentary on the article “Loving the Earth by Loving a Place: A Situated Approach to the Love of Nature” by Laura Candiotto. Abstract: I suggest that Candiotto’s situated approach to the love of nature can be enriched by Tetsuroˉ Watsuji’s analysis of fuˉdo (“climate and culture”) and aidagara (“betweenness. I briefly introduce these ideas and indicate how they might fit with Candiotto’s project.

Resumen. El presente artículo propone un estudio sobre la “nueva izquierda japonesa” como categoría filosófico-política usada para identificar, y subsumir, a los diversos movimientos estudiantiles japoneses del período 1955-1972 –el conocido como el “largo 68 japonés”–. Para tal propósito se exploran dos tesis. Con la primera, se defenderá que es necesario integrar a la “nueva izquierda japonesa” y, en particular, a los movimientos estudiantiles que la conformaron, en el más amplio proceso de transición hacia la “democratización” del país, pues solamente (...) así se puede entender, a su vez, la escalada violenta de algunas de sus facciones y el peso que en ellos pudo tener el pasado autoritario de su nación. Con la segunda, se cuestionará en qué sentido la etiqueta “nueva izquierda japonesa” puede pensarse como una forma más de lo que se conoce como “liberal-libertarismo” (Clouscard) o como ramificación de la llamada “geoideología” estadounidense (Ponce Urquiza).Palabras clave: nueva izquierda japonesa, largo 68 japonés, redemocratización, violencia, geoideología. (shrink)

In Japan, from the pre-war to the post-war period, unique indigenous philosophizing cultures have been nurtured outside academism. The contemporary new philosophical practices which have been recently imported from Europe and North America are welcomed and widespread in Japan because of this indigenous traditional cultural soil cultivated by those local forerunners in the past. In this paper, the 'Life Experience Writing Movement', which was popular from the late Taisho era until the early Showa era, as well as the Science of (...) Thought journal, which was founded by Shunsuke Tsurumi and the other six coteries in 1945 and continued to be published for fifty years until 1996, are discussed. (shrink)

第二次大戦における敗北は、日本の近代化の行く先に必然的に用意されていた、日本史上最大の事件だった。そして日本はその後遺症を抱えたまま、近代化の極たるグローバリゼーションに翻弄され、「第二の敗戦」を経験 しつつある。我々は精神の構えをどう立て直し、やくざ化した世界と伍していくべきなのか。本書では、敗戦をまたいで現われ、西欧近代とひとり格闘し、創造的思考に到達した七人の足跡を是々非々で批評。西欧思考の限 界を超え、日本から発信する文明的普遍性の可能性を探った野心的論考。.

歴史の中で生み出された時代や人々の思想を「事項編」で、個別思想家128人の人と思想を「人物編」で解説し、日本思想史の流れを、わかりやすく鳥瞰する。.

この国の人々は選択的に外の思想を受け入れつつ、あるべき人間とは何かという問いを立ててきた。ではその根底にあるものは何だろうか。思想史を俯瞰してそれを探るには、日本の内と外の両側から眺める視点が必要であ る。そしてそのような内と外の意識こそ、古代からこの国で綿々と受け継がれてきたものだ。神話時代から現在までの各時代の思想に、外部的視点からの解釈を押し通すのではなく、内在的視点をもって丹念に光を当てる。 一人の思想史家による、初めての本格通史。.

敗戦から七十年、我々はどこに向かうべきか?中江兆民、北村透谷、石川啄木、小林秀雄。彼らを知らずして、本当に「現代日本」を語れるのか?

日本主義の精髄としての雪嶺哲学はヘーゲル批判の哲学体系を媒介に大塩陽明学を継承して形成されたことを指摘、雪嶺の実像に迫る。.

This bibliographical guide gives a comprehensive overview of the historiography of philosophy and thought in the Japanese language through an extensive and thematically organized collection of relevant literature. Comprising over one thousand entries, the bibliography shows not only how extensive and complex the Japanese tradition of philosophical and intellectual historiography is, but also how it might be structured and analyzed to make it accessible to a comparative and intercultural approach to the historiography of philosophy worldwide. The literature is categorized and (...) organized according to thematic focus areas such as geographical regions and continents, nations or peoples, religious traditions and philosophical teachings such as Buddhism, Islam, Shintō, and Confucianism, as well as disciplines such as ethics, aesthetics, and political thought. The bibliography is accompanied by an introduction outlining the research method as well as quantitative and qualitative approaches to analyzing the material, followed by a chronological overview of the historiography of philosophy and thought in the Japanese language and of the Japanese tradition of writing “world histories of philosophy.” As a first step towards a “history of the historiography of philosophy” in non-European languages, we hope that this guide will provide a useful tool for interculturally oriented scholarship aimed at a non-Eurocentric and diversified historiography of philosophy in a global perspective. (Open access, see link below.). (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo revisa críticamente una muy reciente incorporación a la “filosofía humanística de la tecnología”: la defendida por el filósofo Yuk Hui alrededor de su “tecnodiversidad”. Se describe cuál es el ambiente actual en el que se discuten asuntos relacionados con la tecnología y con la inquietud que suscita la inteligencia artificial. Esta desazón desemboca, al menos, en dos tendencias. Una, la representada por un anhelo de “nueva ilustración” europea. La otra, propone una filosofía de la tecnología no-europea y (...) no-moderna, por la que aboga Hui. Seguidamente, se discute el abordaje de este autor. Sostiene que, si se consiguieran articular las múltiples historias técnico-culturales, se des-montaría el monismo tecnológico eurocéntrico y se validaría el pluralismo –las diversas “cosmotécnicas”– superándose así la que a sus ojos es la indeseable sincronización tecnológica mundial. Se enuncian los problemas filosóficos e histórico-intelectuales del asunto de fondoque mueve a Hui: la necesidad de una filosofía de la tecnología china por motivos históricos y razones políticas para superar la Modernidad. El estudio concluye evaluando esta filosofía sino-humanística de la tecnología. (shrink)

Fumiko Kaneko was a female anarchist philosopher born in Japan in 1903. With her Korean partner Pak Yol, she founded the anarchist collective “Futei-sha” which published many articles arguing for anarchism and direct action (“Futei-sha” is named after “Futei-Senjin”, a government term for malcontent Koreans). Both Fumiko and Pak were pre-emptively detained during the major earthquake in 1923. During the detention, they testified that they had plotted to bomb the emperor’s son, which resulted in a death sentence for them. Though (...) they were pardoned, Fumiko refused the pardon and killed herself in prison at the age of 23. Her life is candidly written in her autobiography which has been translated into English (Kaneko 1991). In this book, we can see her powerful ego which was developed throughout her extremely oppressed life. Her philosophy is more explicitly expressed in her testimony at her trial. Also, I must note that there is a fantastic Korean film on Fumiko and Pak called Anarchist from Colony in which Korean actress Choi Hee-seo fabulously portrayed Fumiko, expressing Fumiko’s joyful aspect. -/- This article will examine her life story as well as her anarchist philosophy which I will refer to as the anarchism of truthfulness. -/- . (shrink)

This paper discusses the notion of disimagination a translation of the German word Entbildung, which was devised by Meister Eckhart as a reinterpretation of the Neoplatonic categories of abstraction (aphairesis) and negation (apophasis) in connection with Nishitani Keiji's standpoint of emptiness. Nishitani proposes a nonsubjective, nonrepresentational, and nonconceptual type of knowledge to avoid the problem of representation implied in the modern subjective self-consciousness that prevents our access to the reality of things. It is argued that what he calls a knowing (...) of non-knowing can be understood as a transposition of the problematics of aphairesis to a new context, that of the formless form. The ontology of images in the creative process, both cosmic and artistic, is examined from Nishitani's identification of likeness and suchness on the field of emptiness. It is suggested that the resulting denial of the traditional distinction between being and appearance approaches a critique closer to postfoundational metaphysics and, like disimagination, aims at an ascetic movement of self-negation and detachment from words and images that leads, in turn, to a creative and playful use of language free of representation. (shrink)

RESUMEN En el año 1965, Dale RIEPE realizó una cronología de obras de Filosofía Japonesa en la que encontramos referenciada la tesis doctoral de KISHINAMI Tsunezo, aceptada el año 1914 en la Universidad de Princeton y publicada en el 1915 con el título The Development of Philosophy in Japan. En la disertación de Kishinami encontramos varios aspectos que consideramos interesantes para analizar la recepción de un tipo de conocimiento, la filosofía, que en principio se entendió como “importado” de Occidente y (...) que durante los años siguientes a la publicación de su tesis se desarrolló buscando la originalidad e identidad japonesa propia. Este texto pretende analizar ese proceso de “desarrollo”, asimilación o yuxtaposición de la historia intelectual japonesa frente a la irrupción de lo “occidental” personificado en este caso por la filosofía. (shrink)

Conferencia JORNADAS EUSKADIASIA. EXPERIENCIAS DE LO LEJANO: JAPÓN EN PERSPECTIVA.

Chief amongst the issues Toshihiko Izutsu broached is the philosophisation of Zen Buddhism in his book Toward a Philosophy of Zen Buddhism. This article aims to critically compare Izutsu’s reconstruction of Zen metaphysics with another metaphysical tradition rooted in Descartes’ cogito ergo sum. Putting Izutsu’s terminological choices into the context of Zen Buddhism, we review his argument based on the subject-object distinction and establish a comparison with the Cartesian cogito. A critical analysis is conducted on the functional relationship between subject (...) and object in Izutsu’s metaphysics of Zen. This is examined step by step from the perspective of Descartes’ Meditations. On the one hand, we focus on prima facie similarities in meditative and reflective methodologies used by the Zen and Cartesian approaches. On the other, we highlight some unequivocal differences in the metaphysical role of the subject: an indubitable foundation for the epistemological access to objective reality, and an introspective apprehension of the egoless void or absolute reality. (shrink)

Buddhism has gradually reclaimed its place as the most important spiritual tradition to the extent that modern Japanese philosophers no longer even mention Confucian thought, especially since the birth of a Japanese style of philosophy represented by the Kyoto School. Against this historical background, it may seem questionable if anything like an effective interaction between Japanese Buddhist-inspired philosophy and Confucianism ever existed. This essay concentrate on the two occasions in the history of modern Japanese philosophy when the problem of morality (...) gained crucial importance. The first concerns the issue of morality among the second generation of Kyoto School philosophers, culminating in the theme of “overcoming modernity,” and its discussion of how to go beyond modernity, thereby transforming society and the world. This discussion is clearly inspired by Confucian ideas. Since this theme is based on the evaluation of past philosophies and thoughts, it is inseparable from a modern version of doctrinal classification conceived by KŌYAMA Iwao 高山岩男. The second occasion we will examine in this essay is the postwar Marxist critique of this theme. Inheriting this theme of the Kyoto School, HIROMATSU Wataru 廣松渉 proceeds to criticize modern Japanese Buddhist philosophy and Buddhism itself from a practical point of view in order to surpass their shortcomings. In both cases, the question is how such notions as morality and morals are problematized in modern Japanese philosophy, or, more specifically, what the place of morality and practice in Buddhist philosophy is? This is the question that will enable us to see the modern version of interaction between Buddhism and Confucianism. (shrink)

Ueda Shizuteru (born 1926) draws both on „Asian“ and „Western“ ideas to highlight the importance of silence as a mode of expression, especially in the Zen Buddhist tradition. This paper seeks to sort out the basic idea that stands behind his analysis: the idea of articulation, a term – implicitly or explicitly – taken from Wilhelm von Humboldt. Though Ueda acknowledges the importance of language, and – in line with Ernst Cassirer – of non-linguistic, i.e. symbolic forms of articulation, the (...) way in which he presents his concept of silence remains in itself opaque and contests partly his basic assumption that the human being is essentially linguistic. It will therefore be shown how Humboldt’s and Cassirer’s idea of articulation can help to clarify Ueda’s usage of the term, while its application by Ueda in a number of analyses can help to rethink the idea of articulation from its inception in voicing (Verlautlichung) and vocalizing (Verlautbarung) and hence the relation of language and silence. The paper finally aims at an interpretation of Ueda’s analysis of how silence in sitting meditation is drawn towards articulating the very idea of silent meditation in words. (shrink)

Performing Philosophy in Asian Traditions.

This paper focuses on one of the mainstays of Japanese psychiatrist and philosopher Kimura Bin’s (1931–2021) philosophical approach. Kimura’s work is characterized by the intersection of therapeutic, philosophical, and intercultural dimensions in ways that enable his clinical practice and philosophical investigations to mutually inform one another. I examine how this dialectic comes together with his conversion of ordinary Japanese words into philosophical concepts. Explicating the concepts Kimura deploys in developing a phenomenology of the self allows us to make new sense (...) of phenomena ranging from the process of individuation to the collective subjectivity of group life, from the breakdown of the self to its fuller realization. (shrink)

Volume 11, Issue 1, March 2019, Page 7-18.

Watsuji Tetsurō’s concept of fūdo (風土) is intended to capture the way in which nature and culture are interwoven in a setting that is partly constitutive of and partly constituted by a group of people inhabiting a particular place. This essay offers a careful examination of the sense in which the self both constitutes and is constituted by the fūdo, or geo-cultural climate, in which it is emplaced. It concludes with a brief survey of the prospects and problems posed by (...) the interpretation of fūdo that has been presented. (shrink)

Resumen. En este artículo se presenta el texto de Diderot “Philosophie Des Japonois” en el que expone los rasgos del pensamiento japonés y se coteja luego con la translación de Tomás Lapeña en su Ensayo sobre la historia de la filosofía desde el principio del mundo hasta nuestros días. Del texto diderotiano se estudian las “peculiaridades” que encuentra en la filosofía japonesa. En la versión castellana, se identifican las mermas, explicándose las motivaciones tras las cesuras halladas. Se busca esclarecer el (...) patrón moderno de transmisión y distorsión de las filosofías no-europeas. -/- [en] Ad pedem litterae? Philosophy and encyclopedism in nineteenth-century Spain: losses and caesuras in the Spanish translation of Diderot’s “Philosophie Des Japonois” -/- Abstract: The article introduces Diderot’s “Philosophie Des Japonois” in which he exposes the traits of Japanese thought and afterwards is compared with the translation of Tomás Lapeña in his Essay on the history of philosophy from the beginning of the world to the present day. The paper studies, first, the "peculiarities" that Diderot found in Japanese philosophy. Second, reading Lapeña’s Spanish version, the article identifies the losses, explaining the motivations of the caesuras found. The aim is to clarify the modern pattern of transmission and distortion of non-European philosophies. -/- . (shrink)

La irrupció de la filosofia en els segles XIX i XX. Pensament japonès contemporani. Pensament xinès contemporani.

La identidad volátil japonesa ante el nuevo orden mundial.

Mujeres Militantes, Voces Disidentes: Kaneko Fumiko.