ABSTRACT
Tanabe Hajime was a central figure of the so-called
Kyoto School, and is generally acknowledged to be
one of the most important philosophers of modern
Japan. He held Kant in high esteem, and used a
Neo-Kantian critical methodology in his early
studies in epistemology. In the 1920s he was chiefly
influenced by Nishida Kitaro¯’s original cosmological
system. He adapted Nishida’s idea of ‘absolute
nothingness’ to political situations and, in so doing,
contributed much to establishing the foundations of
what became the most influential philosophical
school in Japan up until the end of the Second
World War.
