Meeting of Philosophies: Japan and the West

The project is financed by the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO)

The workshop took place in Tallinn University on 11-15 October 2016, with 10 speaking participants: James Williams (University of Edinburgh, UK), Gereon Kopf (Luther College, IOWA, USA), Chiara Robbiano (University of Utrecht, Holland), Rein Raud (Tallinn University, Estonia), Fernando Vidal (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), John Maraldo (prof.emer., University of Florida, USA), Michael Krämer (Aachen University/CERN), Raquel Bouso (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain), Olli Loukola (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Yoko Arisaka (Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie, Hannover). The workshop was also attended by a number of PhD students from the Tallinn University and the University of Helsinki.

The workshop was organised in five sessions, each of these dedicated to one major topic in philosophy: language, time, being, subject and ethics. Each session was led in by two interventions, one from a researcher with Western background (Deleuze, Greek pre-Socratics, quantum physics, neurophilosophy and ethics were the particular areas of represented competences) and another one from a researcher of Japanese philosophy. These were followed by a vivid discussion of approximately 2 hours each time, followed by informal discussions. Everyone agreed that such a meeting has been long overdue and the exchange of ideas needs to be continued, because many aspects of Japanese philosophy, both ancient and modern, are extremely relevant for the philosophical debates of the present, albeit virtually unknown outside the specialist community.

The workshop thus led to the establishment of an informal network that has been in touch since the event. The participants with Western background, in particular, have started to acquaint themselves more thoroughly with the Japanese philosophical heritage and have been asking questions from their counterparts with a background in Japanese thought. New projects are being prepared, hopefully leading to joint publications and other forms of collaboration in the future.