Table Of ContentPhilosophy of Science and
Th e Kyoto School
i
Bloomsbury Introductions to World Philosophies
Series Editor
Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach
Assistant Series Editor
Leah Kalmanson
Regional Editors
Nader El-Bizri, James Madaio, Sarah A. Mattice, Takeshi Morisato, Pascah
Mungwini, Omar Rivera and Georgina Stewart
Bloomsbury Introductions to World Philosophies delivers primers refl ecting
exciting new developments in the trajectory of world philosophies. Instead
of privileging a single philosophical approach as the basis of comparison,
the series provides a platform for diverse philosophical perspectives to
accommodate the diff erent dimensions of cross-cultural philosophizing.
While introducing thinkers, texts and themes emanating from diff erent
world philosophies, each book, in an imaginative and path-breaking way,
makes clear how it departs from a conventional treatment of the subject
matter.
Titles in the Series
A Practical Guide to World Philosophies, by Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach
and Leah Kalmanson
Daya Krishna and Twentieth-Century Indian Philosophy, by Daniel Raveh
M ā ori Philosophy, by Georgina Tuari Stewart
Philosophy of Science and Th e Kyoto School, by Dean Anthony Brink
ii
Philosophy of Science and
Th e Kyoto School
An Introduction to Nishida Kitar ō ,
Tanabe Hajime and Tosaka Jun
Dean Anthony Brink
iii
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Copyright © Dean Anthony Brink, 2021
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iv
Th is book is dedicated to the fi ction of our bodies in a quantum universe.
v
vi
Series Editor’s Preface
Th e introductions we include in the World Philosophies series take a single
thinker, theme or text and provide a close reading of them. What defi nes the
series is that these are likely to be people or traditions that you have not yet
encountered in your study of philosophy. By choosing to include them you
broaden your understanding of ideas about the self, knowledge and the world
around us. Each book presents unexplored pathways into the study of world
philosophies. Instead of privileging a single philosophical approach as the
basis of comparison, each book accommodates the many diff erent dimensions
of cross-cultural philosophizing. While the choice of terms used by the
individual volumes may indeed carry a local infl ection, they encourage
critical thinking about philosophical plurality. Each book strikes a balance
between locality and globality.
Philosophy of Science and the Kyoto School: An Introduction to Nishida
Kitar ō , Tanabe Hajime and Tosaka Jun is a fi ne exercise in what Dean Brink
calls a counter-hegemonic postcolonial gesture of diff erentiation. Brink
foregrounds how Nishida Kitar ō (1870–1945), Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962)
and Tosaka Jun (1900–45) challenged the hegemonic force of European
philosophy by situating it in their own local Japanese context, which itself is
diverse and dynamic. By underscoring the use of contemporary discourses in
modern physics in their philosophical work, Brink also paves the way for a
counter-hegemonic reading of the Kyoto School itself. C ontra the conventional
interpretation, these prolifi c fi gures of the Kyoto School were not singularly
focused on religious thought. Rather, they sought to develop a subtle, rich and
fascinating account of scientifi c humanism grounded in local traditions.
Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach
x
Preface
World philosophies may be thought of as means of recognizing and realizing
our innate hybridity. If one studies Hegel in France this truism might go
unrealized, though when doing the same in Japan there has been a divide
held between the local thought and the (Western) philosophy. Th e Kyoto
School fi gures introduced here blurred this division by bringing to bear
issues close to them in Japan – of whatever cultural or national origins,
whether Buddhism, Marxism or physics – and articulated with great care
their diverse orientations and passions for understanding the world physically
and socially. With globalization such hybridity congeals in new norms for
world philosophies, yet change in philosophy is like all academic pursuits
glacial, as we say; we are just getting started. Now with the pandemic we are
again somewhat sequestered in our divided worlds in times rife with
international tension, and our task is to learn to love each other again
(paraphrasing W. H. Auden). What does this have to do with the philosophy
of science in Japan? To begin with, if national cultures retreat into their
respective diff erences, science can provide points of controversy over
interpretation that actually bring us closer to understanding each other’s
fundamental assumptions about the worlds in which we live. Our education
suddenly includes the arts and sciences in an unusually technical sense that
leaves little room for good intentions and opens many doors to observing
how we each make use of opportunities aff orded by scientifi c discoveries and
implement them in our lives. Could scientifi c projects themselves lead
embattled nations into cooperation that both could heal the colonial wounds
of the imperialist capitalist past and off er democratic hope to people still
struggling for basic human rights? Beginning perhaps with the Manhattan
Project (to build the world’s fi rst atomic weapons) and similar projects in
Germany and Japan, the possibilities for modern physics altering our world
became gravely apparent. However, we have yet to join thorough studies in
world philosophies in a sincere multicultural engagement with issues in the
philosophy of science that are not superfi cially able to be folded into a
(Western) master narrative. Scientifi c discoveries are far from having been
smoothly integrated in the philosophy of physics today – though the
discoveries themselves can be proven or disproven through a global network
of peer review and repeatability of experiments. What can be explored
through such work as is presented here is perhaps related to a complex of
socio-political factors, including how ideologically sensitive issues and
positions that science itself may support or challenge are modulated by the
philosophy of science. Th e situation engaged by these Kyoto School writers
off ers an exceptional case of how philosophy of science may serve as a
mediator of political, social, religious and scientifi c cultures in three diverse
xi
xii Preface
ways. In short, they each bring to bear on Western philosophy assumptions
made in Japanese philosophy (especially by way of Buddhism) regarding
ontological and epistemological starting points for matter itself as well as
social constructs of various sorts (from individual perception to nationalist
sentiment).
Th at we today are forced to retreat to our places of residence and the
world seems at the cusp of a cold war, linked in part to the pandemic and in
part to questions of technological and economic competition, makes the
questions raised in the Kyoto School (on which a large fascinating and
edifying discourse on war responsibility also exists) pertinent not only to
scientifi c but also political cultures. As we negotiate cultural and political
diff erences, how ideologies play roles within societies and in wars, and how
the philosophy of science pushes our discourse within its ken towards issues
of truth as matters of rethinking existing developments in science, one may
fi nd suggestions for solving pressing global problems by way of common yet
distinct understandings of pollution and climate change, even the
proliferation of destructive and coercive technologies by state and non-state
actors. How can the philosophy of science contribute to the rethinking of a
world of locales and hybridity such as is found in the example of the Kyoto
School and promote a greater appreciation of the diffi culty of attaining
scientifi c commons in an age of misinformation? Always, it is the sheer – but
never pure – intellectual beauty of situating modern physics as a driver of
change in philosophy that may fascinate us and keep us reading.
Dean Brink, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 20 July 2020
