The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism

by Keiji Nishitani, Setsuko Aihara (Translator), Graham Parkes (Translator)

English (translation)
Original Japanese

Genres: Philosophy, Japan, Nonfiction, Buddhism, Spirituality, Eastern Philosophy, Religion

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Keiji Nishitani was a Japanese philosopher of the Kyoto School and a disciple of Kitaro Nishida. In 1924 Nishitani received a Ph.D. from Kyoto University for his dissertation Das Ideale und das Reale bei Schelling und Bergson.

He studied under Martin Heidegger in Freiburg from 1937-9.
He held the principal Chair of Philosophy and Religion at Kyoto University from 1943 until becoming Emeritus in 1964. He then taught philosophy and religion at Otani University.

At various times Nishitani was a visiting professor in the United States and Europe.

According to James Heisig, after being banned from holding any public position by the United States Occupation authorities in July 1946, Nishitani refrained from drawing "practical social conscience into philosophical and religious ideas, preferring to think about the insight of the individual rather than the reform of the social order."

Reviews

[Kirstian · Rating 5 out of 5]

i give this (5) stars simply because Nishitani is one of the few qualified thinkers/intellectuals to have genuine insight into both the Western existentialist and eastern Buddhist philosophies. Need i mention that he was an actual student of Heidegger? (See: Kyoto school...) So in this way, and for these reasons, he is a true gift to those seeking clarification on how to "do" existentialism, (meaning, to make it more of a praxis than merely an abstract theory). Consequently, he offers Westerners a glimpse into existentialism's Eastern parallel; e.g., the Buddhist theory of emptiness, (which is meant to transcend mere reflection by achieving experiential realizations in much the same way). In sum, by offering this kind of guidance and/or insight into some of the West's most profound thinkers (e.g., Nietzsche, Kierkegaard; Dostoevsky and Heidegger), Nishitani demonstrates how philosophy can itself become a spiritual practice. More importantly, perhaps, he directs one through the "angst" (and/or "unheimglischt,"(forgive the sp.)--e.g.,Derrida's expression for "feeling out of home" within one's own body, or person),that one is likely to experience via engaging in such existential (or analytical)meditations. Hence, Nishitani delivers the much needed guidance (and/or abridges the gaps between Eastern and Western philosophies) that the above mentioned existential authors themselves fail to provide.

[Sreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a book that will make you confront the gnawing nihilism lurking beneath the surface of our modern world, the hollowness disguised by consumerism and social media!

[Chant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, hot damn! That was a good read.

A fantastic little book on Nihilism and it's associated thinkers; Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, a little bit of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Stirner (which I was very surprised by!), and their thought in regards to Nihilism.

I would like to add more onto this comment on the book, but I'm afraid I'm not the great at giving a summary or a critique. I however will say that this book isn't well known outside outside of Japan, as I'd imagine many people in western philosophy/comparative literature departments haven't heard of the Kyoto School of philosophy, let alone Keiji Nishitani.

2019: I finally have a copy of my own after all these years and I must say that Nishitani's explanation of Heidegger's "ontological difference" is one of the clearest I've read! I still stand by my original "review"! Read this book!

[Seppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping book (1949) on nihilism and its entanglement with the Western philosophical tradition after Hegel.

Keiji Nishitani (1900-1990) is one of the few Japanese synchretistic writers who combines eastern and western thought. Being a polyglot and familiar with zen-buddhism as well as the thought of Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Dostojewski, Nietzsche and Heidegger, Nishitani brings together East and West.
Actually having studied with Heidegger in the 1930s and thereby member of the Kyoto School he is one of the figures introducing Western thought into 20th century Japan.

This is clearly a university coursebook on the existentialistic overcoming of the problem of nihilism, as well as an overview of some main figures. It has been a key coursebook for long after being published. It reads as from an "outsider perspective", from a different background, but Nishitani engages in the thought fluently as a native.

The Japanese conceptual apparatus focuses on nothingness and nihilism considering Buddhist teaching, but the Western tradition expands on these topics from another metaphysical and existential perspective.
The strongest parts are thereby the reflections on the problem of nihilism in Japan, as well as the musings on Nietzsche and Heidegger from the viewpoint a clash of cultures, which one could see as a self-overcoming affirmation of a universal - yet timely - philosophical problem.

More in depth confrontation can be found in Nishitani's other main work "Religion and nothingness" (1961)

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction that ties together Nietzsche, Stirner, Heidegger, etc. The link to Buddhism seemed a little cursory and much much lighter than Religion and Nothingness. Definitely not as rigorous reading either.

[John Ledingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

nishitani is cool - but having studied most of these guys already myself there wasn't as much new here as there would have been for his intended Japanese audience. i mainly picked it up for interest of his combining buddhism and existentialism, which ultimately didn't go as far as i had hoped for. still a good read, and a really cool perspective (midcentury japan incorporating western thought to overcome a postwar nihlism and try to reignite an eastern tradition) to read up on. i think nishitani is an interesting figure i could well return to with his later work religion and nothingness. i liked the chapter on the russian nihilists a lot. i think maybe camus went over them in "the rebel", but this felt surprisingly like the clearest exposition of that period i have read yet.

[Anttoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nishitani presents all of the various viewpoints to nihilism with a thoroughness that clearly shows exactly how well-versed he was in western thought, and as such this book serves as a great introduction especially to Nietzsche and Heidegger. In addition, this in-depth look into these two thinkers in particular presents the reader with the seeds of Nishitanis own philosophy, which are more pronounced in Religion and Nothingness. Moreover, Self-overcoming of Nihilism is also a far more approachable a book, since it doesn't deal in much detail with the more difficult buddhist elements in Nishitanis thought, which makes it a highly recommendable read.

[Ehmbee Way · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard about this book from the Philosophize This! podcast earlier this summer. The premise, as I understood it then, was that in the 1980’s, the prevailing thought in the west was that nihilism existed as a kind of sickness. And that the most effective way to “cure” said-sickness was for a person to assign purpose to his or her life. And yet, while Keiji Nishitani—a Japanese philosopher—would have likely agreed that finding purpose tends to alleviate nihilistic thought patterns, he would also say that true nihilism, in and of itself, was not a “problem” that needed solved but, rather, that it is almost always the first step toward true enlightenment.

I don’t know that I came away with that same message after having read the book for myself but, to be fair, I have to admit that I probably only comprehended about 60 to 70 percent of it. It was the same when I read Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bertrand Russell and many other “great thinker” books. I’m just a dude of limited-to-average intelligence and so some of this stuff is hard for me to grasp fully (which is one of the reasons I like shows like Philosophize This!).

Of course, as with any good book, it had a lot of interesting ideas that made me think but even still, the language and writing style seemed unnecessarily confusing to me. Granted, this is philosophy, which is often difficult to read as it is, but it’s also important to note that besides the book being almost fifty years old, it’s also a translation of what was originally a Japanese text.

Beyond all that, my only real complaint was that roughly two-thirds of the book was dedicated to understanding Nietzsche. Now I’ve read Nietzsche before. So I get it. More specifically, I get that to discuss nihilism without also mentioning Nietzsche would be like discussing stoicism without also mentioning Epictetus. Nevertheless, I think the book would have been better if Nishitani would have found a way to shorten the amount of pages dedicated to Nietzsche.

In short, I’d recommend The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism to anyone who is at least moderately familiar with Nietzsche, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Stirner, Dostoyevsky and Marx. But for anyone who’s not, just know that there are better places to start than here.

[Arjen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keiji Nishitani

The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism presents a summary of European Nihilism from Schopenhauer up until the late existentialists through the perspective of Zen-Buddhist intellectual Keiji Nishitani. It is perhaps one of the most philosophically dense works i've read. One that effectively embraces the Hinterfragen ohne Ende-attitude so common in its subjects (Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard).
The main focus of this book in its travelling through nihilism from different perspectives is to show the nessecity of going through face-value nihilism in order to reach a more affirmative nihilism (The Amor fati-, Owning our throwness, Affirming divine nessecity- kind) or even better: Śūnyatā. After all, "meaninglessness" presupposes an empty slot for meaning (not to) to fill. Is there still a Nihilism if in truth there is no slot to fill in the first place?
While being an expert on European philosophy and being a student of Heidegger himself, Nishitani manages to relate many of the presented ideas to similar Zen notions, impressively harmonizing Eastern & western philsophies. With knowledge of such things as Śūnyatā and non-duality, as well as his inclusivistic approach, Nishitani is not just summarizing but also empowering these philosophies in his interpretation.

A deep-dive into Nihilism had been on its way, as is clear looking at past GoodReads entries. The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism is a true cherry on top of that path, and surely this will be one to return to many times in attempts to elaborate on- or synthesize other philosophies with Zen-Buddhism and the aformentent affirmative Nihilism.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to pick up this book after hearing an excellent introduction to Nishitani's work via the "Philosphize This!" podcast.

While Nishitani is clearly a brilliant and singular thinker, the book itself occupies an extremely strange space as it is primarily a very brief survey connecting the developments of a few key Existential figures but written in highly technical and precise language which seems more aimed at a graduate seminar. I found Nishitani's insights fascinating, especially the sections where he specifically delves into the Buddhist perspective on emptiness, or his fairly unique take on Nietzsche, but I'm not sure this book on its own adds enough to the conversation for someone already deeply familiar with the ideas of the thinkers in question, and yet is far too technical to function as a high-level survey for the interested reader.

Ultimately for these reasons it get 3.5 stars, though I look forward to reading more of Nishitani's original thoughts in "Religion and Nothingness"

[- Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I started this book, I could not put it down until I finish it, start to finish. Very intriguing, and relatively easier to understand than Nishitani's most famous work; religions and nothingness.

The structure of the book, reminds me of Colin Wilson's the outsider; where it delves right into the pioneers; Dostoevsky, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Stirner. It's not very original, yet it serves an introductory purpose to a niche of western philosophy.

However, the propositional value of Nishitani's work, is that he interrupted these school of thoughts from an Eastern lens, referring to the ego, and it's associated meaning, and lack of it, as the main source of nihilism. These interpretation co-aligns with the Buddhist concept of Anatta; that the selflessness of one's ego is garneted to reduce the amount of suffering that's caused by clinging and attaching oneself to things, and vice versa for the opposite.

[Myat Thura Aung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I did not quite comprehend the part concerning the ontology of Heidegger, roughly speaking, this book is quite a comprehensive reading of European nihilism as confronted (and overcomed) by such philosophers as Nietzsche, Stirner and Heidegger by a Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani (from Kyoto School) with the last section relating it to mahayana buddhist concept of emptiness (sunyata)

[_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read more. What else is abyssal?

[Remy Baskind · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Το βιβλίο The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism Κέιτζι Νισιτάνι διερευνά τον νιχιλισμό, ένα φιλοσοφικό πρόβλημα που αναδύθηκε κυρίως στη Δύση, εξετάζοντας τις συνεισφορές σημαντικών Ευρωπαίων στοχαστών όπως ο Νίτσε και ο Χάιντεγκερ. Ειδικότερα, εστιάζει στον Νίτσε και τον ρόλο του ως «πρωτοπόρου» στην πλήρη βίωση και υπέρβαση του νιχιλισμού μέσω της αγάπης της μοίρας (amor fati) και της θέλησης για δύναμη. Παράλληλα, το κείμενο αναλύει τις ρωσικές προσεγγίσεις στον νιχιλισμό, κυρίως μέσω του Ντοστογιέφσκι, και την προσπάθεια του Χάιντεγκερ να θεμελιώσει τον νιχιλισμό ως επιστημονική μεταφυσική μέσω της αποκάλυψης του Μηδενός. Τέλος, το έργο στοχεύει να μεταφέρει και να προσαρμόσει αυτή την ευρωπαϊκή προβληματική στην ιαπωνική σκέψη, αναζητώντας νέους τρόπους υπέρβασης του νιχιλισμού, συχνά αντλώντας έμπνευση από βουδιστικές έννοιες όπως το «κενό» (sunyata).

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

expected this to involve an lot more crossover between east and west; instead, this is largely just an introduction to various western thinkers with a single chapter at the end that makes a minor effort to interpret western nihilism within eastern historicism. much like the authors initial "what would be the point", I feel like this book doesn't really bring much to the table for westerners, being designed as an introduction to the west for easterners. the minor parallels with Buddhism and taoism were the reason I picked up this book, but ultimately not enough to completely carry my interest.

[Christian Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is mostly a history of post-Hegelian, (mostly) German philosophy up until Heidegger. What makes it good is it's filtered through Nishitani's really unique Buddhist existentialism. If you want more on Nishitani's ideas themselves, rather than as a filter to read western philosophy through, then read Religion and Nothingness. They're both great though

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

would really like to reread...along with religion and nothingness.