Philosophy 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 BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Dean Anthony Brink, 2021 Dean Anthony Brink has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xiii constitute an extension of this copyright page. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-4109-4 PB: 978-1-3501-4110-0 ePDF: 978-1-3501-4111-7 eBook: 978-1-3501-4112-4 Series: Bloomsbury Introductions to World Philosophies Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit w ww.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. 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