Kierkegaard and Japanese thought

265 Pages·2008·1.54 MB·English

by  Kierkegaard

Kierkegaard and
Japanese Thought
Edited by
James Giles
Kierkegaard and Japanese Thought
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Also by James Giles
THE NATURE OF SEXUAL DESIRE
NO SELF TO BE FOUND: the Search for Personal Identity
A STUDY IN PHENOMENALISM
KIERKEGAARD AND FREEDOM (editor)
FRENCH EXISTENTIALISM: Consciousness, Ethics, and Relations with
Others (editor)
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Kierkegaard and
Japanese Thought
Edited by
James Giles
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Editorial matter, selection © James Giles 2008
Chapters © their authors 2008
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First published in 2008 by
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ISBN-13: 978–0–230–55283–8 hardback
ISBN-10: 0–230–55283–8 hardback
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kierkegaard and Japanese thought / edited by James Giles.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0–230–55283–8 (hardback: alk. paper)
1. Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813–1855. 2. Philosophy, Japanese.
3. Philosophy, Comparative. I. Giles, James, 1958–
B4377.K45525 2007
198(cid:2).9—dc22 2007051188
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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Contents
Preface vii
Notes on the Editor and Contributors x
Editorial Note xiv
1. I ntroduction: Kierkegaard among the Temples
of Kamakura 1
James Giles
2. A Short History of Kierkegaard’s Reception
in Japan 31
Kinya Masugata
3. J apanese Pure Land Buddhism and Kierkegaard 53
Hidetomo Yamashita
4. A Zen Understanding of Kierkegaard’s
Existential Thought 71
Eshin Nishimura
5. T o Practise One Thing: Kierkegaard through
the Eyes of Dō gen 87
James Giles
6. A eterno Modo: the Expression of an Integral
Consciousness in the Work of Kierkegaard and Dō gen 106
Ian Mills
7. Truth, Paradox, and Silence: Hakuin and Kierkegaard 124
Archie Graham
8. Living with Death: Kierkegaard and the Samurai 141
Adam Buben
v
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vi Contents
9. K ierkegaard and Nishida: Ways to the
Non-Substantial 159
Eiko Hanaoka
10. The Religious Thought of Nishida and Kierkegaard 172
Shudo Tsukiyama
11. Kobayashi’s Spirit of Unselfishness and Kierkegaard’s Faith 185
Makoto Mizuta
12. M ori and Kierkegaard: Experience and Existence 201
Mime Morita
13. O tani: a Kierkegaardian Fellow of the Dead 219
Kinya Masugata
Index 231
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Preface
This is a book with several purposes. First, it is a book on the philosophy
of Kierkegaard. It involves the exploration of his ideas, arguments, and
approach to the perennial problems of philosophy. Equally, it is also a
book on Japanese thought. It is concerned with Japanese ways of under-
standing reality and the human condition, and also with Japanese ideas
surrounding Eastern practices like meditation. Japanese thought in this
sense, which involves more than what is usually seen in the West as
philosophy, encompasses a diverse range of traditions, each of which is
blended together with the others to be given a unique expression within
Japanese culture. The Japanese expression of these traditions is a major
theme throughout the following pages.
Because, however, the main focus is on the ideas of historical figures
and on historical schools of thought, it is also a book on the history of
philosophy. As a result, it is at the same time a book on philosophy. This
is because to grasp fully the ideas of a thinker or a tradition, one must
also critically evaluate those ideas. And to engage in such an evaluation
of ideas within the history of philosophy is, at the same time, to engage
in philosophy itself. That is, it is an attempt to explore fundamental
questions about the nature of existence, to do so in a careful and critical
way, to discover where the problems lie, and to arrive at some under-
standing of ourselves and the world in which we live. This is the essence
of philosophy.
Further, this is a book in comparative philosophy. Comparative phi-
losophy is a method of enquiry in which philosophy is practised from
within an intercultural perspective. All philosophical enquiry starts
from the background assumptions and concerns of the culture in which
it is pursued. As a result, it is often difficult for a philosopher to be fully
aware of his or her culture’s influence on his or her way of pursuing
philosophy; for this influence is everywhere. It is much like not noticing
the air through which we move about in our day to day lives. We do not
notice it because we are seemingly forever immersed within it.
In comparative philosophy, however, the philosopher attempts to
loosen the grip of his or her culture by entering a new one. In doing so,
the philosophical traveller is presented with new ways of understand-
ing and new ways of seeing old problems. Previously unnoticed assump-
tions and concerns are often thrown into stark relief simply because the
vii
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viii Preface
newly entered culture does not make them or have them. Or perhaps
the culture has contrasting assumptions and interests. All of this can
serve to give insight not only into one’s own and different p hilosophical
traditions, but also into the problems being pursued.
This sort of comparative approach to philosophy is especially impor-
tant in trying to understand someone like Kierkegaard. This is because
both Kierkegaard’s philosophy and ways of thinking seem to reach
beyond the strictures of his own nineteenth-century European culture.
Kierkegaard, however, knew nothing of Japanese culture or even any
non-Western culture, and so was forced to interpret his own insights
from within a purely Western and Christian perspective. But if he had
known of Japanese Buddhism, Shintō , or Taoism, would he have contin-
ued to see himself as being a Christian thinker? This is a significant ques-
tion to ask, especially since Kierkegaard – just like the contributors to this
volume – would obviously have noticed the links and connections that
elements in his work bear to the philosophical traditions of the Far East.
It is also a vital question to ask since Kierkegaard was far from having a
traditionally accepted understanding of Christianity. Moreover, he him-
self unleashed an ‘attack on Christendom’, and thus sought to distance
himself in some sense from Christian t hinking.
Contemporary philosophers and scholars are, or at least ought to be,
less limited in their awareness of other cultures than Kierkegaard was.
Consequently, even though Kierkegaard was constrained in his knowl-
edge of non-Western cultures, and thus in his ability to see his own
ideas in terms of other cultural ways of understanding, we are not. By
ignoring other traditions the interpreter of Kierkegaard is restricting
himself or herself in essentially the same way that Kierkegaard did.
The problem, however, is that to comprehend Kierkegaard in what
might be called a Japanese way, the Western scholar must first make the
effort to know something about Japanese thought (just as the Japanese
scholars in this book have, through their study of Kierkegaard, made
the effort to know something about Western thought). Unfortunately,
not only does this require work, and therefore enough of an interest in
other cultures to do the work, but it also goes against the ethnocentric-
ity of many Western scholars, especially Kierkegaard scholars, many of
whom have a vested interest in seeing Kierkegaard as essentially a
Christian thinker.
Kierkegaard says that one of his goals is to make things more difficult
for people. This also points to another purpose of this book; for this
book is presented in the same spirit, namely, to make it more difficult for
Western philosophers and scholars to continue to pretend that Japanese
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Preface ix
ways of reading Kierkegaard do not exist. The difficulty this book creates
for such people is, of course, only a small one. But if one is lucky (or in
their case unlucky), small difficulties can lead to big problems.
Most of the chapters that follow are based on papers that were p resented
at the First International Conference of the Kierkegaard Society of Japan,
which was held at the University of Melbourne, Australia in December
2005. I therefore want to thank the officers of the Society, especially
Kinya Masuagata and Shin Fujida for their work in organizing the
conference, and also for helping me to bring the ideas presented at the
conference to publication.
JAMES GILES
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