OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

05s-03
PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING AND JAPANESE TRADITIONS

Narifumi NAKAOKA, et al. (Graduate School of Letters)

Objective
  The purpose of these lectures is to make clear various aspects of Japanese thoughts from the past to the present. The course will start from several origins of the ideas in Japan, then focusing on the thoughts of modern philosophers, some of which have been involved in disputes about their political effects and implications. The concluding hours will be spent on contemporary thinking in people's life and the philosophical scene.

Textbook
None particular.

Lecture Outline
Week 1. Indian origin of Japanese religious traditions
Week 2. Intellectual history of the Kaitokudo (Merchant Academy in Osaka)
Week 3. NISHIDA Kitaro as acceptant of European philosophies
Week 4. NISHIDA Kitaro and Logic of Nothingness
Week 5. The Kyoto School of Philosophy and the crisis of modernity I
Week 6. The Kyoto School of Philosophy and the crisis of modernity II
Week 7. Problem of mediance (Fudosei) in the ethics of WATSUJI Tetsuro I
Week 8. Problem of mediance (Fudosei) in the ethics of WATSUJI Tetsuro II
Week 9. Poetry and metaphysics - The thought of KUKI Shuzo
Week 10. Concepts of "Private" and "Public"
Week 11. Dialogue and Philosophy in Japan I
Week 12. Dialogue and Philosophy in Japan II
Week 13. Japanese-European encounters

Grading
Class participation 50%
Term paper to be submitted at the end of the course 50%
(Term paper can be connected to only one of the 13 themes of the course.)