Metanoetics
Metanoetics (from Greek: μετανόησις "conversion, repentance" from μετανοῶ "I repent"; Japanese: zangedō 懺悔道 from dō 道 “path” and zange 懺悔 “confession, penance, repentance”) is a neologism coined by Hajime Tanabe in his 1945 work Philosophy as Metanoetics. The term denotes a way of doing philosophy (or a form of "non-philosophy) that understands the limits of reason. Though the method used by Tanabe to reach this conclusion relies on the transcendental analysis developed by Kant, Tanabe aligns the method with the Buddhist concept of Absolute Nothingness and ideas from of Pure Land Buddhism, Zen, and Christianity.
Tanabe states that Kant did not take the critique of reason far enough. By this Tanabe means that a radical critique of reason should question whether reason itself can understand its ability to embody self-awareness and ultimate reality. The individual exercising reason should remain aware of the crisis of reason and see the
In this state of crisis, the individual gains the perspective required to see another source of enlightenment. Tanabe uses the
Bibliography
- Tanabe, Hajime, Philosophy as Metanoetics (Nanzan studies in religion and culture), Yoshinori Takeuchi, Valdo Viglielmo, and James W. Heisig (Translators), University of California Press (April 1987), ISBN 0-520-05490-3.
- ISBN 978-0-89581-873-7.
- Wattles, Jeffrey, "Dialectic and Religious Experience in Tanabe Hajime's Philosophy as Metanoetics".
- Philosophy and Spiritual Experience: The case of a Japanese Shin Buddhist.