Japanese Philosophy (I)

Fall 2024

Ritsumeikan University

Language: English

At the turn of the twentieth century, people around the world were seeing themselves as “modern.” At the same time, a small, albeit influential, group of such people in Japan, was coming to believe that doing “philosophy” was important. Members of the Meiji Enlightenment, like Nishi Amane (西周 1829-1897) and Fukuzawa Yukichi (福沢諭吉 1835-1901), argued that careful, methodical thinking had a necessary role in legitimately “modern” societies. In subsequent generations, intellectuals like Inoue Enryō (井上円了 1858-1919), Yosano Akiko (与謝野晶子 1878-1942), and Nishida Kitarō (西田幾多郎 1870-1945), agreed but began to consider the nature of “thinking” more expansively, raising complex issues about the status of “thinking” in conversational discourse, artistic work, and ultimate reality. For all of these philosophers, the legitimacy of Japan’s place in the “modern” world seemed tied up with questions about the nature and legitimacy of thinking as a practice―questions, that is, about the role of “philosophy” in Japan and the modern world.

This course treats the relationship between philosophy and modernity as it was considered by representative intellectuals of the Meiji Enlightenment and of the generations that immediately responded to them. It does so by engaging “thinking” as a practice inflected diversely in individual study, conversation, and artistic work. In order to engage “thinking” in artistic work, we consider not only how art became an issue for these writers, but examine films that demonstrate aesthetic, philosophical reflection on the themes of modern legitimacy, thinking, discourse, and reality.

Japanese Philosophy (Seminar) | 日本哲学史（基礎演習）

Spring 2024

Kyoto University

Language: Japanese | 使用言語：日本語

この演習では、「近代における家族」を糸口として日本哲学の中心概念を深く探究していく。西田幾多郎、和辻哲郎、西谷啓治などの哲学者たちの重要な概念を考察し、さまざまなメディアに描かれる「日本家族」の中に見られる哲学的問題を掘り下げることが主な課題である。これをより、一見すると硬く見える哲学的概念を日常生活の文脈で識別し、その流動的な働き方について考える方法を学ぶ。

In this seminar, we explore some central concepts of Japanese philosophy through the window provided by “the modernization of the family.” The primary task is to examine the key concepts of philosophers such as Nishida Kitaro, Watsuji Tetsuro, and Nishitani Keiji, while delving into the philosophical issues found in the “Japanese family” as depicted in various media. From this, students learn how to investigate the ways by which the weighty concepts of the philosophers become fluid within the phenomena of everyday life.