ABSTRACT
Hajime Tanabe (1885–1962), one of the so-called Kyoto School philosophers of modern Japan, explores his own unique Triadic Logic of Species in the form of the dialectic as the foundation of his whole system of thought. He creates a new synthesis of Western and Eastern philosophy on the basis of the traditional Buddhist notion of Emptiness or Absolute Nothingness, the latter of which was first used by his mentor Kitaro Nishida (1870–1945), under whose influence Tanabe develops his ideas in a different way. Nishida’s system of thought focuses upon the concept of ultimate Place or Topos as Absolute Nothingness, which encompasses everything in the world. Tanabe is very critical of this seemingly static logic of Place as dichotomic in character, and further develops his own logic in the form of the Triadic Dialectic of the three parties: the genus, or universal; the species, or particular; and the individual. Tanabe’s Triadic Logic or Trinity, however, is different from the ancient Christian doctrine of the Trinity in that the latter occurs in the eternal dimension of God, whereas the former takes place in the historical realm in which human activity plays a central role. Tanabe stands by practical action, without resorting to any type of contemplation of truth, and his goal is to bring about the self-realization or self-manifestation of eternity in history through the mediation of free human subjective action. His philosophy aims at constructing a kind of philosophy of history.
