Philosophy of the Kyoto School

The main purpose of this book is to offer philosophers and students abroad who show a great deal of interest in Japanese philosophy and the philosophy of the Kyoto school major texts of the leading philosophers. This interest has certainly developed out of a desire to obtain from the thought of Nishida, his colleagues and his students, who stood within the interstice between East and West to open a new prospect on the world of philosophy, a clue to reassessing the issues of philosophy from the ground up or to drawing new creative possibilities. But the present condition seems to be that the material made available to further realize this kind of intellectual dialogue are far too few. This book is intended to be of some help in this regard. The themes taken up by the philosophers of the Kyoto school are diverse and numerous. In this book are selected texts that would best illustrate the characteristics of the philosophy of this school and, while their quantity will be insufficient, works that together would indicate its picture as a whole so that those who have an interest in Japanese philosophy or the philosophy of the Kyoto School can survey its overall picture. These texts are, of course, quite difficult, and cannot be well understood without sufficient preliminary knowledge. Expository essays have therefore been included after each text to provide guidance. In each of these commentaries a scholar with deep understanding of the philosopher in question has provided an account of his life, intellectual journey, and the significance of the text included in this book. Through this book will emerge a new dialogue of ideas that in turn will engender new developments in philosophy, and thereby further expand the network of philosophical thinking worldwide.