Tanabe Hajime (田邊元)
Hajime TANABE (田辺元) (February 3, 1885 - April 29, 1962) was a Japanese philosopher. His name is written '田邊元' using the old character form. Along with Kitaro NISHIDA, he was a thinker representative of the Kyoto School. He became a member of the Japan Academy in 1947 and received the Order of Cultural Merit in 1950.
He was born in Tokyo. His father was Shinnosuke TANABE who served as the master of Kaisei Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo and established Zushi Kaisei Junior and Senior High School and Kamakura Jogakuin Junior and Senior High School.
He enrolled in the university of Tokyo first as a natural sciences student, then moved to literature and philosophy. He later became a lecturer of Tohoku Imperial University.
His works include "Tetsugaku Nyumon" (An Introduction to Philosophy), "Tetsugaku Tsuron" (An Outline of Philosophy) and "Zangedo to Shite no Tetsugaku" (Philosophy as Metanoia). He argued for 'Logic of species,' or 'Philosophy of absolute intermediation,' and advocated metanoia in his last years, but some criticized that the Japan's war responsibility was made ambiguous in the complicated universalization of metanoetics.
The professor of Kyoto University, Kitaro NISHIDA, invited Tanabe to the university as his successor and made him an assistant professor. Following this, the thoughts of Tanabe were influenced by Nishida.
It recently came to light that he had a secret love affair with writer Yaeko NOGAMI in his last years. Approximately 300 of their letters have been published by Iwanami Shoten. Tanabe's disciples included Koichi TSUJIMURA, Iwao KOYAMA, Junzo KARAKI and Torakazu DOI.
Chronology
1885: Born in Tokyo.
1904: Entered Tokyo Fourth Prefectural Middle School (present Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School), graduated first top of the science department of Daiichi High School (the first old-education-system high school), and entered the college of science at Tokyo University.
1908: Graduated from the department of philosophy of Tokyo Imperial University.
1913: Became a lecturer at the department of science of Tohoku Imperial University.
1916: Translated Henri Poincaré's "La Valeur de la Science" (The Value of Science) into Japanese.
1918: Received a doctorate in literature for his study of mathematical philosophy from Kyoto Imperial University.
1919: Became an assistant professor at the department of literature of Kyoto Imperial University with the assistance of Kitaro NISHIDA.
1922: Studied in Germany where he interacted with Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
1927: Became a professor at the department of literature of Kyoto Imperial University.
1928: Translated Max Planck's "Die Einheit des physikalischen Weltbildes" (The Unity of the Physical World Picture) into Japanese.
1935: Published "Shu no Ronri to Sekai Zushiki" (The Logic of Species and the World Schema).
1945: Retired as professor of the department of literature of Kyoto Imperial University.
1946: Published "Zangedo to Shite no Tetsugaku" (Philosophy as Metanoia).
1957: Received an honorary doctorate from Freiburg University.
1962: He died on April 29.