Philosophy as Metanoetics

Introduction

Tanabe Hajime, Nishida’s successor at Kyoto Imperial University, presented the ideas of this book in his final lectures in 1944 and published it in 1946. Facing the war and his own sense of having failed in his responsibility, he concluded that philosophy cannot ground itself through its own reason: it must pass through “metanoesis” (zange, repentance), in which the philosopher gives up self-power and is reborn through “other-power” (tariki). Tanabe draws on Shinran’s Pure Land Buddhism as well as on Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard and Christian sources. The book is also read as a self-critique within the Kyoto School, whose members had been involved with wartime nationalism; an English translation appeared in 1986.

Connections

Builds on

• Teaching, Practice, Faith and Realization (Kyōgyōshinshō)c. 1224 · Shinran

Criticizes

• An Inquiry into the Good1911 · Nishida Kitarō