The Kyoto School and Confucianism: a Confucian reading of the philosophy of history and political thought of Masaaki Kosaka

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dc.contributor.advisorParkes, Graham A.en
dc.contributor.authorRhydwen, Thomas Parry
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-06T09:06:15Z
dc.date.available2016-09-06T09:06:15Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.date.submitted2016
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examines the philosophy of Masaaki Kōsaka (1900-1969) from the East Asian perspective of Confucianism, which I believe is the most appropriate moral paradigm for comprehending his political speculations. Although largely neglected in post-war scholarship, Kōsaka was a prominent member of the Kyoto School during the 1930s and 40s. This was a group of Japanese thinkers strongly associated with the philosophies of Kitarō Nishida and Hajime Tanabe. Kōsaka is now best known for his participation in the three Chūō Kōron symposia held in 1941 and 1942. These meetings have been routinely denounced by liberal historians due to the participants’ support for the Pacific War and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. However, many of these liberal portrayals have failed to take into account the full extent of the group’s resistance to the military junta of Hideki Tōjō. Adopting the methods and techniques of the empirical disciplines of academic history and Orientalism, I develop an interpretative framework that is more receptive to the political values that mattered to Kōsaka as a Confucian inspired intellectual. This has necessitated the rejection of moral history, which typically prioritises modern liberal values brought a priori to the historical record of wartime Japan, as well as recognition of the different ontological foundations that inform the unique political theories of the East Asian intellectual tradition. Reinforced by the prior research of Michel Dalissier and Graham Parkes, as well as my own reading of the Confucian canon, I adopt David Williams’s thesis of ‘Confucian Revolution’ as my principle schema of interpretation. This, I believe, is better able to reconcile Kōsaka’s support for the war with his strong condemnation of the imperialist practices of the Japanese military. Moreover, acknowledging the importance of Confucianism allows us to fully appreciate Kōsaka’s strong affinity for Kant’s practical metaphysics, Hegel’s political philosophy and Ranke’s historiography.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationRhydwen, T. P. 2016. The Kyoto School and Confucianism: a Confucian reading of the philosophy of history and political thought of Masaaki Kosaka. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.endpage365en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/3066
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2016, Thomas P. Rhydwen.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectMasaaki Kosakaen
dc.subjectKyoto Schoolen
dc.subjectConfucianismen
dc.subjectOrientalismen
dc.subjectConfucian revolutionen
dc.subjectPhilosophy of historyen
dc.subjectPolitical philosophyen
dc.subjectMoral historyen
dc.subjectHistorical worlden
dc.subjectJapanese philosophyen
dc.thesis.opt-outfalse
dc.titleThe Kyoto School and Confucianism: a Confucian reading of the philosophy of history and political thought of Masaaki Kosakaen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Arts)en
ucc.workflow.supervisorparkesji@gmail.com
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