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The is the name given to the Japanese philosophical movement centered at Kyoto University that assimilated western philosophy and religious ideas and used them to reformulate religious and moral insights unique to the East Asian cultural tradition."〔D.S. Clarke, Jr. "Introduction" in ''Nishida Kitaro'' by Nishitani Keiji, 1991.〕 However, it is also used to describe several postwar scholars from various disciplines who have taught at the same university, been influenced by the foundational thinkers of Kyoto school philosophy, and who have developed distinctive theories of Japanese uniqueness. To disambiguate the term, therefore, thinkers and writers covered by this second sense appear under The Kyoto University Research Centre for the Cultural Sciences. Beginning roughly in 1913 with Nishida Kitaro, it survived the serious controversy it garnered after World War II to develop into a well-known and active movement. However, it is not a "school" of philosophy in the traditional sense of the phrase, such as with the Frankfurt School or Plato's Academy. Instead, the group of academics gathered around Kyoto University as a ''de facto'' meeting place, and as its founder, Nishida, steadfastly encouraged independent thinking. According to James Heisig, the name "Kyoto School" was first used in 1932 by a student of Nishida and Hajime Tanabe. Jun Tosaka (1900–45) considered himself to be part of the 'Marxist left-wing' of the school.〔Heisig 2001, p.4〕 Afterwards, the media and other academic institutions outside of Japan began to use the term, and by the 1970s it had become a universal title - practically by default. ==History== Masao Abe writes in his introduction to a new English translation of Nishida's magnum opus, that if one thinks of philosophy in terms of Kant or Hegel, then there is no philosophy taking place in Japan. But if it is instead thought of in terms of the tradition carried out by Augustine and Kierkegaard, then Japan has a rich philosophical history, composed of the great thinkers Kūkai, Shinran, Dōgen, and others.〔Masao Abe, "Introduction" in ''An Inquiry into the Good,'' 1987, (1921).〕 The group of philosophers involved with the Kyoto School in its nearly 100-year history is a diverse one. Individual members often come from very different social backgrounds. At the same time, in the heat of intellectual debate they did not hesitate to criticise each other's work. The following criteria roughly characterize the features of this school: #Teaching at Kyoto University or at a nearby affiliated school. #Sharing some basic assumptions about using Asian thought in the framework of western philosophical tradition. #Introducing and rationally investigating the meaning of "nothingness" and its importance in the history of philosophical debate. #Expanding on the philosophical vocabulary introduced by Nishida. Generally, most were strongly influenced by the German philosophical tradition, especially the thought of Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. In addition, many employed their cultural resources in formulating their philosophy and bringing it to play to add to the philosophical enterprise. However, while their work was not expressly religious it was informed significantly by it. For example, both Tanabe and Keiji Nishitani wrote on Christianity and Buddhism and identified common elements between the two religions.〔Tanabe in ''Philosophy as Metanoetics'' and ''Demonstratio of Christianity'', and Nishitani in ''Religion and Nothingness'' and ''On Buddhism''.〕 For this reason, some scholars classify the intellectual products of the school as "religious philosophy." Although the group was fluidic and largely informal, traditionally whoever occupied the Chair of the Department of Modern Philosophy at the University of Kyoto was considered its leader. Nishida was the first, from 1913 to 1928. Hajime Tanabe succeeded him until the mid-1930s. By this time, Nishitani had graduated from Kyoto University, studied with Martin Heidegger for two years in Germany, and returned to a teaching post since 1928. From 1955 to 1963, Nishitani officially occupied the Chair and since his departure, leadership of the school has crumbled - turning the movement into a very decentralized group of philosophers with common beliefs and common interests. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kyoto School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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