Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School

Recognizing the importance of the Kyoto School and its influence on philosophy, politics, religion, and Asian studies, Japanese and Continental Philosophy initiates a conversation between Japanese and Western philosophers. The essays in this cross-cultural volume put Kyoto School thinkers in conversation with German Idealism, Nietzsche, phenomenology, and other figures and schools of the continental tradition such as Levinas and Irigaray. Set in the context of global philosophy, this volume offers critical, innovative, and productive dialogue between some of the most influential philosophical figures from East and West.

This is a nice collection of papers on Japanese and Continental philosophy. The introductory essay by the editors is informative and insightful, providing an introduction both to the Kyoto School and to some important topics covered in the work. The editors opine that the essays can be understood as 'conversations on an Ox path,' thereby drawing together Heideggerian and Zen themes. The papers are well written and professionally done. Before modernity, the nihon-do or 'Japanese way' and its etiquette were sufficiently binding that the search for an adequate 'ethics of principle' was not necessary or even intelligible. Until the Meiji era, terms were lacking in the Japanese language for philosophical concepts and distinctions as rendered in the West. If understandable at all, Western metaphysical ideas such as substance, mind/body dualism, and the distinction between reason and sensibility were irrelevant to the Japanese sense of reality. Against this background, the unique texture and development of the Kyoto School of philosophy emerges as an important contribution to world philosophy. The present volume considerably advances East-West dialogue and the reputation of the Kyoto School. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty. --ChoiceF. J. Hoffman, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, April 2012

"This book, carefully edited and produced, is a welcome addition to the field of intercultural philosophy, and is recommended for all students of philosophy, language, religious studies, intellectual history, communication theory, comparative literature, and global studies." --Journal of Asian Studies Indiana University Press

"The present volume considerably advances East-West dialogue and the reputation of the Kyoto School.... Recommended." --Choice

"After a hundred and fifty years of studying western thought and rethinking it from their own spiritual and intellectual resources, Japanese philosophers have arrived at a watershed in securing their rightful place within a philosophical forum more open and comprehensive than ever before. The encounter of Western scholars with the Kyoto school has played a pivotal role in this turn of events. What is more, as the essays brought together in this book attest, the conversations have grown beyond one of translation, synopsis, and critical commentary for foreign consumption to include important contributions to that tradition itself." --James W. Heisig, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture

"Japanese and Continental Philosophy is a breathtaking venture into the lively world that opens between the Kyoto School and Western philosophy of a continental cast. If anyone harbors any doubts as to the value of bringing together these traditions, these doubts will be utterly dissipated upon reading this scintillating text. This is a book to savor, as timely in its appearance as it is replete with wisdom in its offering." --Edward S. Casey, SUNY Stony Brook

"My overall assessment of this volume is that it is a strong and valuable source for specialists in the Kyoto School, as well as for nonspecialists within the Continental tradition who are curious about this movement." --Journal of Japanese Philosophy Indiana University Press

Bret W. Davis is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland.

Brian Schroeder is Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy and Director of Religious Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jason M. Wirth is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University.

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations of Works by the Kyoto School

Introduction: Conversations on an Ox Path

Part 1. The Kyoto School and Dialogue

1. Contributions to Dialogue with the Kyoto School / Ueda Shizuteru

2. Dialogue and Appropriation: The Kyoto School as Cross-Cultural Philosophy / Bret W. Davis

3. Tanabe Hajime's Logic of Species and the Philosophy of Nishida Kitar: A Critical Dialogue within the Kyoto School / Sugimoto Kichi

Part 2. Self and World

4. Philosophy as Auto-Bio-Graphy: The Example of the Kyoto School / hashi Rysuke

5. Nishitani after Nietzsche: From the Death of God to the Great Death of the Will / Bret W. Davis

6. Empty Soul, Empty World: Nietzsche and Nishitani / David Jones

7. Ueda Shizuteru's Phenomenology of Self and World: Critical Dialogues with Descartes, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty / Steffen Döll

Part 3. God and Nothingness

8. Nothing Gives: Marion and Nishida on Gift-giving and God / John C. Maraldo

9. Language Games, Selflessness, and the Death of God: A/Theology in Contemporary Zen Philosophy and Deconstruction / Gereon Kopf

10. Buddha and God: Nishida's Contributions to a New Apocalyptic Theology / Thomas J. J. Altizer

Part 4. Ethics and Politics

11. Other-Power and Absolute Passivity in Tanabe and Levinas / Brian Schroeder

12. Beyond the Binary: Watsuji Testur and Luce Irigaray on Body, Self, and Ethics / Erin McCarthy

13. Overcoming Modernity: A Critical Response to the Kyoto School / Bernard Stevens

14. Heidegger and Japanese Fascism: An Unsubstantiated Connection / Graham Parkes

Part 5. Grammar, Art, and Imagination

15. The Middle Voice of Emptiness: Nishida and Nishitani / Rolf Elberfeld

16. Truly Nothing: The Kyoto School and Art / Jason M. Wirth

17. Logos and Pathos: Miki Kiyoshi's Logic of the Imagination / Fujita Masakatsu

List of Contributors

Index