Syllabus Number 4 Course Transcendence of the Good Name

Semester, Year First Semester, 2017 Number of Credits 2 credits

Course level 5000 Course Number 027005

Instructor(s) Shigeru TAGUCHI (大学院文学研究科) (Institution) The aim of this seminar is to investigate different conceptions of the transcendence of the good in the ethical writings of Levinas, Derrida, Nishida, and Tanabe. The seminar begins with two sets of lectures from Levinas' early and late thinking: Time and the Other; God, Death, and Time. In both of these lectures, Levinas develops a conception of ethics based on the primacy of the other and the disruptive irruption of the infinite within an ontological economy of desire and egotism. Levinas' elemental insight into the traumatism of the Good (as the commandant "thou shall not kill" inscribed in the face of the other, as the infinite, as messianic hope) is further developed and explored, at times critically, in the writings of Derrida on mourning, responsibility, and forgiveness. Levinas’ text “Transcendence of Evil” and his debate with Phillipe Nemo will also be addressed. Next, these considerations of Good and Evil in Levinas and Derrida are compared with the ethical thinking of the Course modern Japanese philosophers, Kitaro Nishida and Hajime Tanabe. Nishida started his career with his book Inquiry into the Good. In this work, he claims that what is truly good is to know the true self, and hence fusing Objectives with the essence of the universe and uniting with the will of God. However, the later Nishida no longer simply speaks of such unity with the good. Rather, he seems obsessed by the ineradicability of evil, saying that even God bears evil in himself and that our self is “contradictory self-identity of good and evil.” Nishida’s disciple and critic Hajime Tanabe also confronts the problem of the ineradicable evil. He changes our understanding of the ineradicability of evil in the way that evil in us functions as an infinite mediator that enables religious transformation. Through an acute?almost masochistic?self-awareness of our own evil, we can attain religious forgiveness and become motivated to help others, because such self-awareness destroys fixation to our own self and enables selflessness. In this sense, for Tanabe, Good is intrinsically mediated by Evil. Through these investigations, this course challenges stereotypical prejudices concerning good and evil and explores a new way of interpreting them. Through this course you can 1. understand Levinas' and Derrida's conceptions of the transcendence of the good. 2. acquire knowledge of Nishida's interpretation of good and evil in his early and late writings as well as Tanabe's Course Goals religious reinterpretation of evil. 3. find clues to explore a new conception of good and evil that can contribute to solving problems in the contemporary world. 1. Introduction 2. Levinas' early thinking of the good (Time and the Other) 3. Good and the Other (general discussion) 4. Levinas' late thinking of the good (God, Death, and Time) 5. Derrida's thinking of the good 6. The good in contemporary philosophy (general discussion) Course 7. Nishida's early thinking of the good (Inquiry into the Good) 8. Nishida's late thinking of good and evil Schedule 9. Contradictory identity of good and evil? (general discussion) 10. Tanabe's reinterpretation of evil 11. Evil as mediation to the good 12. Beyond the conventional understanding of good and evil (general discussion) 13. Student's presentation (1) 14. Student's presentation (2) 15. Closing discussion Students need to read the texts that will be announced later (which are downloadable from the website of the Homework course). They also need to prepare for their presentations.

Your grade will be determined by how well you demonstrate your achievement of the course goals through Grading 1. participating in discussions. 30% System 2. writing a short essay. 40% 3. giving a presentation about your idea. 30% Time and the Other Emmanuel Levinas Duquesne University Press 1987 God, Death, and Time Emmanuel Levinas Stanford University Press 2000 Textbooks / Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas Jacques Derrida 1999 1999 Reading List An Inquiry into the Good Kitaro Nishida Yale University Press 1992 Last Writings Kitaro Nishida University of Hawaii Press 1987 Philosophy as Metanoetics Hajime Tanabe University of California Press 1986

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