THE SELF-OVERCOMING OF NIHILISM SUNY Series in MODERN JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY Peter J. McCormick, Editor THE SELF-OVERCOMING OF NIHILISM • NISHITANI Keiji Translated by Graham Parkes with Setsuko Aihara STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS The preparation of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1990 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y. 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nishitani, Keiji, 1900- [Nihirizumu. English] The self-overcoming of nihilism / Nishitani Keiji : translated by Graham Parkes with Setsuko Aihara. p. cm. - (SUNY series in modern Japanese philosophy ) ISBN 0-7914-0437-4 (alk. paper). - ISBN 0-7914-0438-2 (pbk. : alk paper) 1. Nihilism (Philosophy ) 2. Philosophy, Modern-19th century. 3. Philosophy, Modern-20th century. 4. Philosophy, European. 5. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900-Contributions in concept of nihilism. 6. Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976-Contributions in concept of nihilism. 7. Philosophy, Japanese-20th century. I. Title. II. Series. B828.3.NS13 1990 149'.8-dc20 90-31631 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Nanzan Studies in Religion and Culture James W. Heisig, General Editor Heinrich DUMOULIN, Zen Buddhism: A History. Vol. 1, India and China. Trans. by J. Heisig and Paul Knitter, 1988. Heinrich DUMOULIN, Zen Buddhism: A History. Vol. 2, Japan. Trans. by J. Heisig and Paul Knitter, 1989. Frederick FRANCK, ed., The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School. 1982. Winston L. KING, Death Was His Koan: The Samurai-Zen of Suzuki ShOsan, with a Foreword by Nakamura Hajime, 1986. Robert E. MORRELL, Early Kamakura Buddhism: A Minority Report, 1987. NAGAO Gadjin, The Foundational Standpoint of Miidhyamika Philoso­ phy. Trans. by John Keenan, 1988. NISHITANI Keiji, Religion and Nothingness. Trans. by Jan Van Bragt with an Introduction by Winston L. King, 1982. NISHITANI Keiji, Nishida Kitaro: The Man and His Thought. Trans. by Yamamoto Seisaku and J. Heisig, forthcoming. NISHIDA Kitaro, Intuition and Reflection in Self-Consciousness. Trans. by Valdo Viglielmo et al., with an Introduction by Joseph O'Leary, 1987. Paul L. SWANSON, Foundations ofT'ien-T'ai Philosophy: The Flowering of the Two Truths Theory in Chinese Buddhism, 1989. TAKEUCHI Yoshinori, The Hea rt of Buddhism: In Sea rch of the Timeless Spirit of Primitive Buddhism. Trans. with Introduction by J. Heisig and a Foreword by Hans Kling, 1983. TANABE Hajime, Ph ilosophy as Me tanoetics. Trans. by Takeuchi Yoshi­ nori et aL, with an Introduction by J. Heisig, 1987. Taitetsu UNNO, ed., The Religious Ph ilosophy of Nishitani Ke iji. En­ counter with Emptiness, 1990. Taitetsu UNNO and James HEISIG, eds., The Religious Ph ilosophy of Ta nabe Ha jime: The Metanoetic Im perative, 1990. Hans WALDENFELS, Absolute No thingness: Fo undations fo r a Buddhist­ Ch ristian Dialogue. Trans. by J. Heisig, 1980. Contents Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations Xlll Introduction xv Notes on Texts xxix Preface to the First Edition xxxiii ONE Nihilism as Existence 1 1. Two Problems 1 2. Nihilism and the Philosophy of History 3 3. European Nihilism 6 TWO From Realism to Nihilism: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach 9 1. Hegel's Absolute Idealism and Radical Realism 9 2. Schopenhauer-Will as Real-The Nullity of Existence 12 3. Kierkegaard-Becoming and Existence 16 4. Feuerbach-Critique of Religion, Philosophy, and Ethics 22 THREE Friedrich Nietzsche: The First Consummate Nihilist 29 1. The Significance of Nihilism in Nietzsche 29 2. Radical Nihilism 33 3. Nietzsche's Interpretation of Christianity 37 4. The Concept of "Sincerity"-"W ill to Illusion" 41 FOUR Nietzsche's Affirmative Nihilism: Amor Fati and Eternal Recurrence 45 1. Value-Interpretation and Perspectivism 45 2. The Problem of Amor Fati 48 viii The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism 3. Love of Fate as "Innermost Nature"­ Suffering-Soul 50 4. The Idea of Eternal Recurrence: The "Moment" and Eternity 53 5. Eternal Recurrence and Overcoming the Spirit of Gravity 57 6. Love of Fate and Eternal Recurrence 60 7. The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism 62 FIVE Nihilism and Existence in Nietzsche 69 1. "God is Dead" 69 2. Critique of Religion 72 3. The Stages of Nihilism 76 4. Nihilism as Existence 77 5. The First Stage of Existence 79 6. The Second Stage of Existence 83 7. Nihilism as Scientific Conscience 86 8. Science and History as Existence 90 9. "Living Dangerously" and "Experimentation" 93 10. The Third Stage-Existence as Body 94 11 . The Dialectical Development of Nihilism 98 SIX Nihilism as Egoism: Max Stirner 101 1. Stirner's Context 101 2. The Meaning of Egoism 103 3. Realist, Idealist, Egoist-"Creative Nothing" 105 4. From Paganism to Christianity 107 5. From Christianity to Liberalism 108 6. From Liberalism to Egoism 111 7. Ownness and Property-All and Nothing 116 8. The State and the Individual 120 SEVEN Nihilism in Russia 127 1. Russian Nihilism 127 2. Bazarov's Nihilism-"Fathers and Sons" 133 3. Nihilism as Contemplation-"Notes from Underground" 139 EIGHT Nihilism as Philosophy: Martin Heidegger 157 1. Existentialism as a Discipline 157 2. The "Ontological Difference" 159 Contents ix 3. Transcendence and Being-in-the-World 161 4. Being-toward-Death and Anxiety 165 5. Finitude-Metaphysics-Existence­ Freedom 168 NINE The Meaning of Nihilism for Japan 173 1. The Crisis in Europe and Nihilism 173 2. The Crisis Compounded 174 3. The Significance of European Nihilism for Us 177 4. Buddhism and Nihilism 180 APPENDIX The Problem of Atheism 183 1. Marxist Humanism 183 2. Sartrean Existentialism 185 3. Atheism in the World of To day 188 Notes 193 Index 233 Acknowledgments Our gratitude needs to be expressed for the receipt of "seed money" for the translation project which we received in 1985 from the University of Hawaii Research and Training Revolving Fund. This grant enabled us to travel to Kyoto for a preliminary discussion of the text with Professor Nishitani. The bulk of the funding for the project came from a translation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: we should like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of the Texts / Translations Program at the Endowment for their efficient assistance and kind encouragement over the past few years. We are grateful for an award from the Research Relations Fund at the University of Hawaii, which provided the primary translator with a course-reduction for the semester following our six months of work on the translation in Japan. The release-time fur­ nished by this award came at just the right time, and accelerated progress on the project considerably. We also wish to acknowledge the assistance of the NorthEast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. A travel grant awarded in 1988 enabled us to return to Japan for final consultations with Professor Nishitani in Kyoto and Dr. James Heisig in Nagoya. We are grateful to Jan Van Bragt, Director of the Nanzan Insti­ tute for Religion and Culture, for his meticulous reading of an early draft of the translation, as well as to James Heisig for his help in de­ and reconstructing the manuscript at a later stage. Would that every translation project from Japanese could be blessed with such intelli­ gent readers. Throughout the course of the project Professor Horio Tsutomu of Otani University in Kyoto, a former student of Professor Nishita­ ni's, provided invaluable assistance with unfailing serenity. Stefan Thumfart, who was engaged in graduate study at Kyoto University at the time of our first draft, was kind enough to let me (GRP) see a draft of his German translation of the chapters of Hishitani's book that deal with Nietzsche. He also provided references to the TaishO Tripitaka and German translations of the more opaque quotations xii The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism from Chinese Zen sources (which he had it turn received from his friend Dr. Dieter Schwaller). Gratitude is due to my colleague here in Hawaii, Virgina Ben­ nett, who standardized the orthography of the proper names in the chapter on Russian nihilism. My friend Lee Siegel helped, at the eleventh hour, to eradicate some tenacious infelicities from the pen­ ultimate draft of the Introduction, which had already benefited from James Heisig's comments. Thanks, also, to Lori Kuriyama for her efficient typing of the entire draft of the translation. I should like to take the opportunity to acknowledge Setsuko Aihara's invaluable contribution to the project, and to register awe at the facility with which she was able to wrest the most recalci­ trant passages of Japanese into comprehensible English. Equally re­ markable was the serene patience with which, in the earliest stages of the translation accomplished in the sweltering heat of a To kyo summer, she would coolly remind me of what Nishitani's Japa­ nese was actually saying in contrast to what I thought it ought to be meaning. We should like, lastly, to thank Professor Nishitani himself, as well as his daughter, for the kind hospitality extended to us on our visits to his home in Kyoto over the past several years. The long conversations held in the quiet little room distinguished by the sig­ nificant absence of any kind of clock, where time would pass as it rarely passes, linger in the memory as the most delightful feature of the entire project.