Abstract

The question is how have the Japanese received and analyzed Hegel’s philosophy? In addressing the theme of “Japanese philosophy and Hegel”, I would like to show that Hegel represents a junction in Western philosophy and that his ideas were transformed later, especially within the ranges of the sciences for understanding new developments. If interpretation of Hegel is again in transition today, and if Hegel’s work shows up in newer perspectives, we shall recall that not only Hegel’s understanding of the world and of the scientific system, but also the subsequent reception of the philosophical tradition present a new meaning for our times. Historically, Japanese philosophy has used both Eastern and Western ideas. It assumes that foreign ideas, which are necessarily plural andthus possess contradictory values, should be examined with respect to their special factors. Japanese philosophy transforms the stranger forms according to their own cultural problems, in order to preserve its identity. In this tension between dependence and independence and the harmonization of the plurality, one can understand Japanese philosophy. The reference of the Japanese to European philosophy means that the Japanese are no longer meeting with strangers, butare discovering themselves. It is no longer a question of Christianity versus Zen Buddhism, between the Western thinking of being and the Eastern experience of the nothingness, but for Japanese philosophy to free itself from such comparisons. Just in this way, can it see itself in the stranger, and the stranger in itself.