20th Century Japanese Philosophy

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)

In discussions of the “three teachings”, it is the rivalry between Buddhism and Confucianism that has had a significant impact on the intellectual history of Japan. Buddhism had been predominant for centuries until its political power was greatly diminished during the reunification process under ODA Nobunaga 織田信長 ; subsequently, Neo-Confucianism was adopted by the Tokugawa shogunate and the purified version of its ideology may be regarded as the backbone of the Meiji Restoration. Yet, 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)

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)

Performing Philosophy in Asian Traditions.

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.