Events Japanese Philosophy and its Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger

Readings of Japanese philosophy are often undertaken from the assumption that Heidegger has been essential to its development. Thus, in the comparisons between Heidegger and Japanese thinkers, Heideggerian philosophy is frequently employed as the primary framework by which Japanese philosophy is interpreted and understood. However, Japanese thinkers cannot be understood as simply “students of Heidegger.” They developed original philosophical perspectives independent of Heidegger’s, perspectives that often challenged the core tenets of Heidegger’s philosophy. This workshop challenges the presupposition about the primacy of the Heideggerian framework of interpreting Japanese philosophy by examining the critical engagement with Heidegger’s thoughts in Japanese philosophy. Figures such as Nishida, Tanabe, Nakai, Miki, Watsuji, and Nishitani, to mention but a few, critically engaged Heidegger’s philosophy. All the presenters are specialists in both Heidegger and Japanese philosophy. The workshop is the first stage of this project. The second stage will be to publish a volume on the same theme.

Participants:

Prof. Yoko Arisaka (Roche Chair)

Prof. Steve Lofts  (Roche Chair)

Prof. Abe Hiroshi (Kyoto University)

Prof. Hans Peter Liederbach (Kwansei Gakuin University)

Morten Jelby PhD student (Ecole normale supérieure, Paris)

Prof. Sova Cerda  (Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University)

Prof. Fernando Wirtz (Kyoto University)

Prof. 秋富克哉 (Kyoto Institute of Technology)

Prof. Bret Davis (Loyola University Maryland)