Tetsugaku Companion to Modern Physics and Kyoto School Philosophy

This volume draws attention to the encounter between physics and Japanese philosophy during the last century. While a remarkable global network of Japanese philosophy has been growing and enhancing connections with the arts, religion, hermeneutics, aesthetics, the prevailing opinion is that there is no common ground for a meaningful dialogue between theoretical physics and Japanese philosophy. With a special focus on Nishida Kitar's engagement with scientific thought, this book invites readers to appreciate both the significance of foundational questions arising from relativity and quantum theory for Japanese philosophy, and the insightful influence of certain East Asian philosophical notions on theoretical issues in modern physics.

The idea for this volume came up during the conference 'Philosophy and Physics between Europe and Japan, 1922-1953', held at the University of Naples Federico II in October 2023. Bringing together contributions from scholars of multiple areas of expertise, this book highlights, on the one hand, the scientific sensitivity of certain philosophers of the Kyoto School, and on the other, the role played by their analyses in the conceptual development of some Japanese physicists. This text identifies new research crucial to refining the understanding of theoretical issues at the heart of modern physics as well as to Japanese philosophy from an inter-cultural perspective. It appeals to researchers and students working at the crossroads of theoretical physics and Japanese philosophy.

Includes new perspectives from East Asian philosophy on conceptual controversies in physics Contains novel approaches to the studies of Nishida and the Kyoto School Brings forth expert analysis from an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars

Autorentext

Rossella Lupacchini is an associate professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Naples Federico II. Her research focuses primarily on the foundations of physics and mathematics. Her broader interests include forms of scientific and artistic representation, geometric structures, and the history of ideas from Renaissance culture to modern physics. More recently, she has turned her attention to the comparison between Eastern and Western ways of thinking, with special regard to the engagement of certain philosophers of the Kyoto School with scientific thought.

Inhalt

Introduction.- PART I. Modern Scientific Thought and Kyoto School Philosophers.- "ENCOUNTER AT EGEN'S HOME On the Necessity of Dialogue Between Science and Religion in Nishida Kitar's Philosophy.- Yukawa, Tanabe, and Zhuangzi: Yukawa and East Asian Thought in His Theoretical Physics.- Dialectics of Nature: The Reception of Quantum Mechanics in Tanabe and Cassirer.- Delimiting the Physical and Metaphysical in Nishida, Tanabe, and Tosaka.- Shimomura Toratar's Philosophy of Science.- PART II. Nishida Kitar and the World of Physics.- Modern Physics and Philosophy East and West: Nishida, Bohr, Yukawa.- Time in Quantum Mechanics and Nishida Kitaro¯.- Quantum Spacetime: Echoes of Basho.- PART III. From the Basho of Forms through Empty Domains and Beyond.- Out of Nothing? Nishida and Yukawa on Crea6ve Thinking.- Into the Breath of Form: Fields of Awareness and Empty Domains.- Yukawa & Nishida: Elementary Domains & Logic of Place.- From Spacetime to Fields and Back: Elementary.- Domains and their Philosophical Roots.- Regards Croisés: Yukawa Hideki and John Wheeler at the 'Wayside Inn of the Ten Thousand Things.