School of thought

Kyoto School

School

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Classification

Period
c. 1913 CE onward
Regions
east asia
Domains
Metaphysics , Philosophy of Mind

Overview

The Kyoto School, centered at Kyoto University, represents the most significant attempt to synthesize Eastern (especially Zen Buddhist) and Western (especially phenomenological and existentialist) philosophy. Nishida developed the concept of 'absolute nothingness' (zettai mu) as a more fundamental ground than Western Being, while Nishitani explored the relationship between nihilism and Buddhist emptiness.

Key ideas

  • Absolute Nothingness: Nishida's key concept: the ground of reality is not Being (as in Western metaphysics) but absolute nothingness — the 'place' (basho) in which all determinations arise and return.
  • Self-Awakening: True self-knowledge is not reflective consciousness but a direct, non-dual awareness — the self knowing itself in and through absolute nothingness.
  • Overcoming Nihilism: Nishitani argued that Western nihilism can be overcome not by returning to theism but by passing through nihilism into the Buddhist experience of sunyata (emptiness) — a creative, affirmative nothing.

Key figures

Nishida Kitaro · Tanabe Hajime · Nishitani Keiji · Watsuji Tetsuro

Influenced by

References