A Review of the Kyoto School: An Introduction

The Kyoto School: An Introduction. By Robert E. Carter. Albany: SUNY, 2013, ISBN: 9781438445427 (paperback), $24.95. In this book, Robert Carter, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Trent University in Canada, introduces works of four major Japanese philosophers: Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, Nishitani Keiji, and Watsuji Tetsuro. His aim is to make present selection accessible even to those who possess either minimal or no knowledge of Kyoto School's thinkers. For former, Carter provides many citations with references for future research. For latter, Carter includes a glossary of terms (173-181) to help novice to navigate text with greater ease. Carter's expertise in synthesis of Eastern and Western ideas enhances accessibility of this text for any Western reader. In addition, his role as a director of Interdisciplinary program at Trent University clearly shows his attuned sensitivity to such cultural idiosyncrasies. To better situate his discussion, Carter begins by providing a brief historical overview and notes that Japan after Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) was transformed from an isolated society into an advanced society accompanied by intellectual development. The Kyoto School highlights this intellectual advancement. The four thinkers discussed in this book adopted an approach that built a foundation for ability to adopt, integrate, but also expand and transform certain Western thoughts into uniquely Japanese system of thought. To address uniqueness of Kyoto School philosophy, Carter recalls James Heisig's insight that Kyoto School is in fact a tradition of interpretations of Nishida's works. This tradition sets itself apart from Western tradition by avoiding any dichotomy between and philosophy. The absence of this dichotomy alerts Western reader to Western nature of term religion itself. Carter points out that so-called religions of East were placed into a predefined category according to imposed Western conceptions. Religion is defined without a typical recourse to belief' but rather in terms of consciousness transformation which is perplexing for Western reader. Carter stipulates his own definition of and how it fits into Japanese delineation by stating: philosophy is, at very least, thinking that both is and consistent, leading to If such thinking leads to self-transformation, then it is in line with what Japanese believe ought to be (6). Borrowing from Carter's definition of philosophy, his exposition of thought of four philosophers discussed in this selection is rigorous and consistent, leading to clarity. In Chapter one, Carter addresses thoughts of Nishida Kitaro. To unpack Japanese thought and make it accessible to Western world, Nishida discusses it in Western terms. The Kyoto school was born out of this initiative. To understand Nishida's thought requires elucidation of his central concepts that, in some cases, relate to Western influences. William James' concept of is one of these influences. Carter demonstrates that Nishida extrapolates James's concept of pure experience by arguing that it is available to anyone engaged in a culture of the meditative art (20). The influence of Henri Bergson's immediate is exemplified in Nishida's articulations of intuition. Nishida is drawn to Bergson's insistence that intuition is more valuable than thinking, which has tendency to fragmentize and de-emphasize one's whole experience. Nishida does not refute intellectual experience but transforms it into a unified experience enhanced by one's intuition that he terms 'intellectual intuition' or direct seeing (28). Yet, Carter warns not to surmise that, for Nishida, pure experience means abandoning intellect. He explains that for Nishida, pure experience is always a unity and its unifying power leads him to adopt metaphysics of becoming, according to which the macrocosm is reflected in microcosm; and reverse also holds (25). …

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