Absurdity to Existence in Kierkegaard and Tanabe Hajime

  • Baba Tomomichi The Open University of Japan
Keywords: Existentialism, metanoethics, Absolute dialectic, irrationalism, absurdity

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the influence of S. Kierkegaard's ideas on the formation of the worldview and concept of one of the founders of modern Japanese philosophy, Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962). The author analyzes three stages in the formation of the philosophical worldview of Tanabe Hajime: the stage of theoretical logic, the stage associated with the study in Germany and the philosophical ideas of German idealism, dialectics, social ontology, and the stage devoted to philosophy of religion, philosophical irrationalism and the ideas of Kierkegaard. The historical and philosophical study of the formation of Tanabe Hajime’s ideas in this work includes an analysis of the Japanese thinker’s understanding of certain limitations of rationalism, the inevitability of turning to thoughts about the essence of social and individual conflict, paradox and denial in real existence. We study a whole series of categorical interdependencies related to the concepts of the absurdity of being, its irrationalization, the ideas of “absolute nothing”, borrowed by Tanabe Hajime from Nishida, “unification by means of negation”, dialectics outside rational thinking, “or absolute dialectics”, etc. The author of the article emphasizes the positive nature of the perception, understanding and interpretation of the ideas of Kierkegaard Tanabe Hajime, the desire of the Japanese thinker to highlight the positive meaning of the ideas of the “Great Danes” and determine their significance in the modern culture of Japan.

Author Biography

Baba Tomomichi, The Open University of Japan

Doctor of Literature, Part-time Lecturer, The Open University of Japan

Published
2013-12-02
How to Cite
Tomomichi, B. (2013). Absurdity to Existence in Kierkegaard and Tanabe Hajime. IDEAS. PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC ISSUES, (5 (15), 157-161. Retrieved from https://ideas.academyjournal.org/index.php/IDEI/article/view/48
Section
Scientific life