What was Japanese Philosophy of History? Reconstructing the “World-Historical Standpoint” of the Kyoto School
Dr. Christian Uhl
This project will examine the Kyoto School around Japans pre-eminent philosopher Nishida Kitaro, and its contributions to the intellectual discourse of war-time Japan. The starting point of the project is an in-depth inquiry into a series of war-time symposia of Nishida’s former students, the so called Chuo koron-discussions. This inquiry is the starting point for an exploration of the contextual horizon of the “World-historical standpoint”, i.e. an analysis of its locus with the horizon of “Nishida-Philosophy”, the wider discourse in Japan, and in 20th century Europe, particularly Germany.
Central concerns are the influence of the German philosophical discourse since Hegel, which was highly influential in Japan, the concept of “freedom”, and the problem of freedom and necessity in the philosophers conceptions of time and history, the question of the nature of modernity and its “overcoming”, or the problem of the relation between the question of the “self” and religious concepts of “metanoia” on the one hand, and the affirmation of the war on the other. Thereby I hope to undertake not only an exegesis of the core texts in light of their contexts, but also an illumination of these contexts, and these questions, in light of my core texts.
