The Kyoto School after 1950: The Problem of Its Unity and Methodology

The Kyoto School (Kyōto-gakuha) is a group of Japanese thinkers who developed original philosophical theories inspired both by Western philosophy and the philosophy of East Asia, especially by Mahāyāna Buddhism and Daoism. As is reflected in the name of the School, its founding members were associated with Kyoto University. The Kyoto School originator, Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), did not think of himself as a founder of any school and always encouraged independent thinking in his students. In the beginning, the so-called Kyoto School philosophers studied and taught at Kyoto University, they developed their thinking under the influence of Nishida as well as in dialogue and debate with him and with one another. However, after 1964, when Nishitani Keiji, Nishida’s student, retired from the Chair of Philosophy of Religion, Kyoto University has ceased to be the main place of Kyoto School philosophers’ activity. The aim of this paper is to prove that after 1950 we should understand the Kyoto School mainly as a specific theoretical frame and methodological approach. All thinkers branded as “Kyoto School philosophers” studied Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially Zen and Shin (True Pure Land) schools, in a nondogmatic and non-sectarian manner. One of the characteristic methodologies of the Kyoto School is “selective identification,” by which I mean explaining Buddhist concepts using selected Western terms or theories but taking them out of their original context. Another method of the Kyoto School philosophers is to develop Western philosophical theories in a new direction (sometimes quite unexpected by Western philosophers) by confronting them with the Buddhist worldview.