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The Philosophical And Historical Dynamics Of Watsuji Tetsuro's Cultural Phenomenology, Edgar Allan Weir

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This study will examine one of the greatest modern Japanese philosophers, Watsuji Tetsuro. In a long and prodigious life Watsuji produced some of the most insightful works now extant in ethics, cultural identity, and intellectual history. This work will explicate two pillars of Watsuji's philosophy: the source of authentic Japanese identity and the primacy of human relationships within that authenticity. This study will also uncover the conjunctures between history and thought that sparked the developments and transformations in Watsuji's philosophy. More importantly, it will attempt to free Watsuji's theories from telelogical approaches that have utilized the war, erroneously conflating Watsuji's …