Keiji Nishitani

Nishitani Keiji (Japanese西 谷 启 治; * February 27, 1900, † 24 November 1990) was a Japanese philosopher. He is regarded as one of the most important people in philosophy in Japan of the 20th century.

Life and work

Nishitani Keiji was a pupil and successor of Kitaro Nishida, the founder of the Kyoto School.

1924 doctorate Nishitani on the ideal and the real in Schelling and Bergson. In the years 1937-1939 he held on to studies with Martin Heidegger in Freiburg im Breisgau and taught since 1943 as a professor in Kyoto.

Nishitani was a philosopher of religion, the experiences from the practice of Zen Buddhism combined with the existentialism of Martin Buber and with anthropological approach. Through his detailed knowledge of Western and Eastern philosophy succeed in a parallel representation of nihilism and Shunyata, which is formulated in Christian theological language. His religion philosophical work " Shūkyō - towa - nanika " is in German translation under the title "What is religion? " Appeared (Frankfurt am Main 1982).

Works

• Nishitani Keiji chosakushū ( Collected Works of Nishitani Keiji ). Sōbunsha, Tokyo 1986-95.
• What is religion? From the Author authorized dt Transfr of Dora Fischer Barnicol, Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1982.
• Religion and Nothingness. The University of California Press, Berkeley, 1982, ISBN 0-520-04946-2.
• The Self - Overcoming of Nihilism. State University of New York Press, Albany 1990
• The Japanese Art of Arranged Flowers. Translated by Jeff Shore, in: Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen M. Higgins (eds.): World Philosophy: A Text with Readings. McGraw Hill, New York 1995.