ABSTRACTIn this study, I examine the Confucian influence upon An Inquiry into the Good, the first publication of Nishida Kitarō. Nishida’s student Kōsaka Masaaki depicts his mentor’s conception of the good in terms of realising the 'Mandate of Heaven'. Taking this to be indicative of the importance of Confucianism for Nishida’s early thought, I compare his philosophy of pure experience and ethical project of ‘self-realisation’ with corresponding ideas found in the Confucian corpus. I especially focus on the Great Learning and (...) Doctrine of the Mean as interpreted by the Neo-Confucian Wang Yang-Ming. This study builds upon the pioneering work of Michel Dalissier, Dermott Walsh and David Williams on the Kyoto School and Confucianism. My portrayal of Confucianism is indebted to the ‘philosophical’ translations of Roger Ames, David Hall and Henry Rosemont, Jr., which bring into relief the tradition’s ‘relational ontology’ that Graham Parkes teaches is shared by the Kyoto School. (shrink)

Answering the challenge of G. W. F. Hegel's idealism and its perceived logocentrism has arguably been a defining feature of nineteenth- and twentieth-century continental philosophy. Today, in the midst of a Hegel renaissance, Hegel's legacy within continental philosophy is far more ambivalent. In this essay, I cut across debates about the status of Hegel's idealism in order to offer a reflection on the legacy of Hegel by reconstructing a Hegelian notion of legacy. I develop this notion in response to Jacques (...) Derrida's discussion of inheritance in Specters of Marx (1993). Both Hegel and Derrida articulate the structure of legacy, inheritance, and history on the basis of the strictures of gathering. For both, gathering is an act of memory that determines a legacy as a legacy, a history as a history. Gathering determines an event, norm, idea, or institution as something to be passed on for a future to come. While Derrida concludes that inheritance implies decision, Hegel's recollection provides the basis for what I will call a critical history, which contributes to any such decision in crucial ways. (shrink)

At Kyoto, there is something peculiar going on with negations, or so it seems: A is A, and yet A is immediately not A, and therefore A is A. Without a doubt, this looks a lot like a paradoxical inf...

چکیده در این مقاله سعی می‌کنم نشان دهم که با وجود اختلاف زمانی یا تاریخی و جغرافیایی بین فلسفة مکتب کیوتوی ژاپن در قرن بیستم و حکمت اسلامی شباهت‌های درخور تأملی برای مطالعات تطبیقی وجود دارد. بنابراین به نظر نگارنده «امکان گفت‌وگو» بین این دو تصورشدنی است. با این حال، این مقاله ادعا نمی‌کند که تطبیق کامل و منطقی بین این دو مکتب قابل حصول خواهد بود. مکتب کیوتو در ذن بودیسم سنتی ژاپنی و تفکر عرفانی و فلسفی مغرب‌زمین ریشه (...) دارد و نمایندگان کلیدی آن عبارت‌اند از: نیشیدا کیتارو، نیشیتانی کیجی، و تانابه هاجیمه. در این مقاله عمدتاً بر اندیشه‌های دینی و عرفانی نیشیدا و نیشیتانی متمرکز خواهیم شد. نیشیدا کیتارو پایه‌گذار مکتب کیوتو محسوب می‌شود. اندیشة غالب در این مکتب مبتنی‌بر مفهوم نیستی، خدا، تجلی، عشق، دین، و مسئلة نفس است. از سوی دیگر، در حکمت اسلامی نیز تقریباً به مفاهیم مشابهی در اندیشة نمایندگان برجستة آن مانند مولوی، صدرا، و ابن‌عربی، که تحت تأثیر سنت دینی و قرآنی و سنت فلسفة یونانی قرار دارند، برمی‌خوریم. این مقاله بر آن است که با تمرکز بر مفاهیمی مانند نیستی، خدا، تجلی الهی، عشق الهی، دین، و نفس در هر دو طرف «امکان» گفت‌و‌گو را نشان دهد. (shrink)

The concept of Nothingness—Japanese mu or Chinese wú 無—is central both to the Kyoto School and to important strands of Chinese philosophy. The Kyoto School, which has been active since the 1930s, is arguably modern Japan’s most philosophically sophisticated challenge to Western thought. Further, as contemporary East Asia continues to rise in importance, East Asians and Westerners alike are beginning to consider anew the contemporary philosophical relevance of Confucianism, Daoism, and East-Asian Buddhism. These originally Chinese traditions were certainly important influences (...) directly and indirectly on Kyoto School philosophy itself. At the very least, Kyoto thought and Chinese thought share foundational structural resemblances, especially regarding the concept of Nothingness. This study summarizes the concept of Nothingness in the Kyoto School and in Chinese philosophy, and then offers an evaluation of the contemporary relevance and general coherence of this concept. (shrink)

In his new work on the Kyoto School David Williams presents the first “reading” in English of the complete text of the three Chūō Kōron symposia held by members of the second generation in the early 1940s. In addition, he provides an extensive commentary that explores the inability of “liberal history” to account for the political realities of wartime Japan and the “moral worldview” of the four symposists. Adopting the empirical methodology of earlier works, Williams proposes an alternative thesis of (...) “Confucian Revolution” that takes into account the “logic and conventions” of Japan as a Confucian society. His focus on the influence of Confucianism brings to the fore a neglected aspect of modern Japanese political philosophy that yields important insight into the nature of the Kyoto School's wartime thought and their struggle against the Tōjō regime. (shrink)