30. Keiji Nishitani: The Duty of Critique and the Problem of Fascism
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Melanie Coughlin [+]
Carleton University
Description
Nishitani Keiji (d. 1990 CE) addresses a concrete socio-political concern in the wake of the Second World War: how does fascism function epistemically, and what kind of critical practice is required to counteract it? The theme Nishitani uses to investigate this problem is “the soul” (tamashī). During the Second World War, this term for “soul” was one of many Shintōistic elements used to promote imperialist theories of Japanese uniqueness and superiority. Nishitani offers an account of the term that counters these kinds of misuses. The soul, Nishitani argues, is the life of a nation’s people whose self-shaping power requires critical history. Although largely implicit in this essay, Nishitani was strongly influenced during this period by an emphasis on the salvific awareness of one’s own karmic evil in the thought of Shinran Shōnin (d. 1263), the founder of True Pure Land or “Shin” Buddhism. Drawing a method from Nietzsche’s genealogy and an aim from Shinran’s soteriology, Nishitani argues that the method of taking a “scalpel to one’s roots” must above all aim to counteract “one’s own” fascism.