“Rationality” in History

Nishida Kitarō and Mou Zong-san

Abstract

Having faced the upturning time from the seclusion through the opening of Japan and China, Nishida Kitarō and Mou Zong-san had studied critically and closely on“history”in line with their respective traditions. In the course of receiving Western philosophy, they both employed“Eastern”intellectual thoughts, including Zen and Confucianism to usher their philosophical movements. It is without doubt that there are political, economic and cultural differences embedded in their respective understanding of“history”. They did, however, at the same time emphasize“rationality”as a kind of methodology for studying“history”. For Nishida, instead of highlighting the“particularity”(tokushusei 特殊性), a universal“logic”(ronri 論理)or a strict scholarly method(genmitsunaru gakumontekihōhō 嚴密なる學問的 方法)should be stressed while examining“history”. For Mou,“rationality” in history refers to“the logic of events”(shili 事理), in which“shi”signifies human affairs(renshi 人事)instead of physical events(wulide shi 物理的事) and li denotes its meaningfulness. Mou argued that li should be understood in the way of dialectic logic(bianzhengde li 辯證的理)and dialectic intuition (bianzhengde zhiguan 辯 證 的 直 觀 ). In this short essay, we examine how “rationality”correlates to“history”and how it influenced the formation of Nishida’s and Mou’s philosophy of history. On top of the overwhelming comparative studies between the West and Japan, or the West and China, it is believed to be the time for reviewing the possibility and problematic of philosophical interchange between Japan and China.