Non-being Self as Mediator in Tanabe Hajime's Philosophy

Title

Non-being Self as Mediator in Tanabe Hajime's Philosophy

Author

Shigeru TAGUCHI

Page

25-40

DOI

10.6163/tjeas.2015.12(1)25

Abstract

The influential 20th century Japanese philosopher Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962) developed a unique concept of the self that can help us to rethink the question ＂What is the self?＂ In his view, the self should neither be objectified nor thought of as something hidden behind the phenomenal world. It entirely manifests itself in our experience, but nevertheless, cannot be observed as a fixed object. This is because the self is nothing other than the ＂mediation＂ that is operating in our experience of all that appears as concrete reality. For example, the mediation between the material and the spiritual is naturally accomplished in the bodily action that the self performs without making itself appear as an objective being. It is neither the case that the visible body is the self, nor that the self is completely apart from the body. The self is the most engaged performer in this play, but who, for all that, does not appear on the stage. Thus, the self as ＂mediation＂ should not be regarded as a being, but as ＂nothingness.＂ This does not mean that our self is simply nothing, however. Rather, it is only by being aware of the self as nothingness that we can properly understand how our self is able to serve as a transcendental condition (or mediator) of all those things that appear as beings. By this thought, we are not required to willfully abandon the self as a being; in a practical action, we are already made to abandon it. This fact shows that the thought of the self as nothingness has significant practical implications. Such a reinterpretation of the self culminates in a reinterpretation of the mediation between God and worldly subjects, which is determined by Love and Great Compassion (大悲).

Keyword

Self, nothingness, mediation, Japanese Philosophy, Tanabe Hajime, ethics, religion

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