Japanese Buddhist Philosophy

In the writings of the Japanese Pure Land Buddhist Shinran 親鸞 (1173–1263) we read: “I, Shinran, do not have a single disciple of my own” (SZ Supplement: 10; Saitō 2010: 242; Yuien 1996: 6). Is he simply being modest? Does Shinran defy discipleship? Does he rule out the possibility of the reception of his thought? The answer to these questions is not clear; nevertheless, what we do know is that the reader of his writings is supposed to arrive at the (...) Buddha’s original teaching. Shinran’s voluminous works, however, exhibit more than an introduction to, or simple interpretation of, the Buddha’s preaching. We may say that Shinran has given us sermons and treatises that manifest an authentic and unique appropriation of the Buddhist tradition, and, therefore, his works offer the possibility of a thoughtful reception for his interpreters and disciples. The philosopher KUKI Shūzō 九鬼周造 (1888–1941) wrote remarkable verses about Shinran seven centuries after his death: “I will have no disciple, said Shinran; as for me [Kuki], I long to have his soul” (KSZ Supplement, 146; Saitō 2010: 242). Kuki’s poetic reflections express Shinran’s quest for an authentic life, and echo back the existentialist aspect of his philosophy. More than this, his words commit him to Shinran as his teacher. Do these words not enact the most authentic discipleship possible? In fact, SAITŌ Takako takes Kuki’s verses as empirical evidence of his receiving the intellectual legacy of Shinran. Thus, at the end of her article, the proof of historical facticity of reception retroactively justifies Saitō’s careful comparison of Kuki’s thought with Shinran’s, which began based on presuming similarities in content. In other words, the factual findings prove the validity of comparing Shinran and Kuki, although a truthful reading is impossible to verify historically. Be that as it may, Kuki’s poetic expression demonstrates the history of the reception of a pre-modern Buddhist by a modern philosopher in Japan, regardless of whether this discipleship was ultimately judged to be authentic and perfected, or an untimely failure. (shrink)

Tetsugaku Companion to Japanese Philosophy – Ueda Shizuteru (Forthcoming: Sringer) Table of Contents (to be revised) Introduction Raquel Bouso, Adam Loughnane, Ralf Müller Part 1 Ueda Shizuteru’s Philosophy Chapter 1: Introducing Ueda Chapter 2: The Contours of Ueda Shizuteru’s Philosophy of Zen Bret Davis Part 2 Mysticism, Eckhart and Zen Chapter 3: Ueda as Reader of Eckhart Bernard Stevens Chapter 4: An Ontology of Non-Discriminatory Love: The Resurrection of the Triune Self in Ueda Shizuteru’s Appropriation and Critique of Meister Eckhart (...) Gregory Moss Chapter 5: “The Self that is not a self”: Ueda and Guoan’s Ten Ox pictures Gereon Kopf Chapter 6: On Mysticism and Non-Mysticism Carlotta Moiso Part 3 Ueda and Contemporary Philosophy Chapter 7: Ueda on Being-in-the-Twofold-World or World Amidst The Open Expanse: Reading Nishida Through Heidegger and Reading Heidegger Through Nishida John Krummel Chapter 8: Nishida and Ueda on Philosophical Reflection Ishihara Yuko Chapter 9: Twofold Being-in-the-World in Ueda’s Philosophy: On His Interpretation of Heidegger and Nishida Ōta Hironobu Chapter 10: In-between: Religious quest and philosophy of life in Ueda and Buber Raquel Bouso Chapter 11: Ueda’s Metaethics Jason Dockstader Part 4 Hermeneutics and Language Chapter 12: Ueda and Heidegger: Playing in Hollowness, Abiding in Actuality and the Risk of Poetic Language Adam Loughnane Chapter 13:The articulation of silence in language. About Ueda Shizuteru’s language thinking Ralf Müller Chapter 14: Nothingness and the poetic experience: Ueda and Valente Pablo Acosta and Raquel Bouso Chapter 15: Being With and In Language Ueda’s Phenomenological Approach to Language through Urwort Kuwayama Yukiko Part 5 Ueda in debate Chapter 16: Introduction to Ueda’s works James W. Heisig Chapter 17: Reviewing Ueda’s PhD Dissertation- Review Heinrich Dumoulin - Review Jan Sudbrack Chapter 18: Ueda Shizuteru and Ito Masao discussing the heart - The depth of the heart Ueda Shizuteru - Replying to Ueda: The brain and the secret of the heart Ito Masao Chapter 19: Interview: To Shoulder The Tradition of the Kyoto School Ueda Shizuteru interviewed by Takahashi Yoshito Appendix Bibliography The Ten Oxherding Pictures. (shrink)

Wie denkt Dogen (1200-1253) Sprache im Horizont der sprachkritischen Tradition des Zenbuddhismus? Die vorliegende Studie widmet sich dieser Frage und rekonstruiert umfassend das Sprachdenken des philosophisch fruchtbarsten Autors der japanischen Vormoderne. Dazu wählt der Autor einen doppelten Zugang: zum einen rezeptionsgeschichtlich unter Einschluss von Philosophen des modernen Japans, zum anderen systematisch mithilfe der Symboltheorie Ernst Cassirers in der Theoretisierung eines adäquaten Sprachbegriffs. So verschränken sich mit Interpretationen zum Hauptwerk Dogens, dem Shobogenzo, Außen- und Innenperspektive auf ein zenbuddhistisches Sprachdenken und erweisen (...) es in seiner Kommensurabilität zum philosophischen Diskurs. (shrink)

Performing Philosophy in Asian Traditions.

John Maraldo’s Crossing Paths with Nishida assembles the life’s work of one of the leading voices in Nishida scholarship. Spanning over three decades, this brilliant collection of essays charts the path not just of Nishida’s philosophy, but also the path of deep inquiry of one of his most incisive commentators. In thirteen insightful essays, each reprinted with a new introduction by the author, Maraldo delves into the most critical issues in Nishida scholarship while rendering his philosophy germane to a host (...) of contemporary issues, such as environmentalism, nationalism, cognitive science, and phenomenology. A variety of systematic topics are explored, ranging from Nishida’s notions of “absolute nothingness” and “enactive intuition” to questions of religion, politics, and Nishida’s relation to Heidegger. This volume is essential reading for the specialist and for any reader with an interest in the most important thinker of the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy. (shrink)

_Concepts of Philosophy_ challenges received conceptions of philosophy by way of critical engagement with Chinese and Japanese sources. Built on philologically sound readings of specific texts, the book lifts the discussion on the concept of philosophy to a global plane.

he fourteen essays gathered together in this, the third volume of Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy, represent one more step in ongoing efforts to bring the concerns of twentieth-century Japanese philosophy into closer contact with philosophical traditions around the world. As its title indicates, the aims are twofold: to reflect critically on the work of leading figures in the modern academic philosophy of Japan and to straddle the borderlands where they touch on the work of their counterparts in the West. -/- (...) A first group of essays deals with the modern Japanese philosophers Kuki Shūzō, Nishida Kitarō, Nishitani Keiji, and Takizawa Katsumi. These are followed by three essays on comparisons with classical Western thought and three with contemporary philosophy. The final three contributions offer reflections on the role of Japanese philosophy today. (shrink)

The growing scholarship on the Kyoto School of Japanese Buddhist philosophy has brought it to the attention of more and more people in the West, but in the process, the Kyoto School has acquired a fixed identity. It is usually depicted as centered around three main figures—Nishida Kitarō, Tanabe Hajime and Nishitani Keiji—and concerned with the philosophy of nothingness. In fact, however, as the thirteen scholars in this volume show, the Kyoto School included several other members beside the inner circle (...) of three, and these members were concerned with a wide range of philosophical issues beyond the philosophy of nothingness. The range and variety of these essays give a much more realistic picture of the many fronts on which the Japanese encountered Western philosophy. (shrink)