A Philosopher’s Defeat in World War II: Tanabe Hajime’s Conversion to Shin Buddhism in Philosophy as Metanoetics

Authors

  • Taro Mochizuki

Abstract

In the last years of World War II, Tanabe Hajime, started writing Philosophy as Metanoetics (the way of zange). He was inspired by Shinran, a thirteenth-century Japanese Shin Buddhist  thinker and began to understand philosophy as metanoetics. “a philosophy that is not a philosophy”. Philosophy that is not a philosophy cannot be undertaken by one’s own power, but must be acquired through Other-power. Hence, philosophizing implies the continual act of “practice-faith-witness” (gyo-shin- sho) of the philosopher’s own metanoia, performed by Other-power within himself. This paper argues that Tanabe’s conversion became a creative deconstruction of modern philosophy caused by the cultural encounter occasioned by the war, which generated a dialectical effect in his thinking and eventually led to his conversion to Shin Buddhism.

Author Biography

Taro Mochizuki

Osaka University, Japan

Downloads