- 著者
-
長谷 正當
- 出版者
- 宗教哲学会
- 雑誌
- 宗教哲学研究 (ISSN:02897105)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.21, pp.1-22, 2004 (Released:2019-03-21)
When it comes to pinpointing the key concept that guides Takeuchi Yoshinori’s thought and gives it its direction, we can say, I think, that it is the idea of trans- descendence.
Takeuchi’s research covers Shinran’s Kyogyōshinshō, Early Buddhism, Philosophy of Religion, Phenomenology of Religion, etc., and the idea of trans-descendence resonates, while changing its form, in all these fields, as it were, as the carrying bass note.
Takeuchi himself, however, stops at suggesting this concept, without formally discussing it. Therefore it gives the impression of floating in Takeuchi’s thought world, a bit like an iceberg the bulk of which is hidden under the water surface. I would like, therefore, to examine how it appears in each of the above mentioned fields and, by joining these forms together, to bring out the main motives of Takeuchi’s thought.
The concept of Trans-descendence was first used by Jean Wahl. Takeuchi borrowed the term from him, but gave it a different meaning. In Jean Wahl the term denotes a descent into a level of deep experience that opens up reality, as seen in artists; Takeuchi uses it to signify a deepening of the awareness of the human finitude. He attempts, namely, with the help of this concept, to clarify the nature of the transcendence, which opens up through the self-awareness of finitude.
Ordinarily, the attention to human finitude is thought to lead away from transcendence or even to negate it. There is, however, a transcendence that stands by being negated. Such a transcendence is what Takeuchi calls “trans-descendence (inverted transcendence).” This transcendence does not obtain by going beyond the finite; it opens up in the midst of the self-awareness of finitude. In order to show the special nature of this transcendence, Takeuchi often contrasts it with the “transcendental” standpoint. If the transcendental standpoint consists in having a foothold in the topical opening that reveals itself at the bottom of the existence of the self, according to Takeuchi, the particularity of the transcendence that is trans-descendence is to be found in grasping the existence of the self in the encounter with a “Thou,” that breaks through that topical expansion and comes from the other side of it.
Takeuchi attempts to show this transcendence, which opens up in the self-awareness of finitude, in the fields of the Philosophy of Religion, Early Buddhism, Shinran’s thought, and so on. How would it be grasped in each of these fields?