 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. tosaka jun (1900â45) 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 moniker, 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 kÅ«kai, shinran, dÅgen, 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 invest
Empire_of_Japan Japanese_philosophy Kyoto_University Philosophical_schools_and_traditions