清沢満之の理性観

抄録

On Kiyozawa Manshi's view of reason, there is a famous statement in his first book, Shukyo tetsugaku gaikotsu. In its English translation, The Skeleton of A Philosophy of Religion, the passage runs as follows:
If there are two propositions, the one of reason and the other of faith, we should rather take the former instead of the latter.
Based on this statement, it has been suggested that in his early period Kiyozawa considered reason more important than faith. However, we should also note the following statement in the same book.
But remember that the nature of reason is incompleteness, i. e, reason can never be complete in its range or series of propositions, one proposition linking to or depending on the other ad infinitum, so that if any one relies on reason alone, he might never be able to attain the solid resting place of religious belief.
From this, we can understand that Kiyozawa was aware of the problem of reason. Therefore, when we consider Kiyozawa Manshi's view of reason, we must take into account both his appreciation and criticism of reason.