Amanda Sayonara - Panel 5 ENOJP Paris
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 05/01/2018

Nothingness and freedom: a comparative analysis between Nishitani Keiji and Meister Eckhart's perspectives

Amanda Sayonara Fernandes Prazeres (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Attempting to pursue a dialogue between Buddhism and
Christianity through the medieval philosophy of Meister Eckhart
is not new. In fact, the ideas exposed in the sermons of the
medieval Dominican priest and philosopher are defined by
D.T. Suzuki (1870–1966) in his book “Mysticism: Christian
and Buddhist” as closely approached Buddhist thoughts, so
closely indeed, that one could stamp them almost definitely
as coming out of Buddhist speculations. Looking for a different
philosophical approach, I aim to analyze the connection
between the conceptions of nothingness and freedom in the
Japanese philosopher Nishitani Keiji (1900–90), representative
of the Kyoto School of philosophy, and Meister Eckhart’s
perspectives. The purpose is to consider the convergences
and divergences, and especially if in both the Christian and
the Buddhist thinkers this freedom is understood not in an
ethical sense, related with the action of a subject, but is interpreted
as a religious solution to the traditional problem of
the substantial perspective, based on western ontology. Discussing
the context of the contemporary philosophical world
of the nihilism and overcoming modernity discussions, for
Nishitani emptiness means freedom of the substantial outlook,
which is not able to reach the reality in its truth, beyond
concepts and representations. Conversely, Meister Eckhart’s
medieval discussions about the proof of God’s existence and
how men can be related with the sacred believe that the freedom
caused by detachment (Abgeschiedenheit) is responsible
for the encounter with the true nature of the God, namely the
Godhead, in the ground of nothingness, beyond a creature’s
perspective, self, and will. That said, I aim to analyze comparatively
how, for the Christian Medieval thinker and the
Japanese philosopher with Zen Buddhist’s bases, the freedom
provoked by the realization of nothingness is a meontological
answer religiously oriented, where one can reach reality in its
truth and, especially, one can find the true-self.

This talk took place at the 3rd Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy in Paris, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris 1) and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) from November 2-4, 2017.

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http://enojp.org/
http://chisokudopublications.com/

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