Reception and Transformation of Heidegger's Philosophy in East Asia: From Tanabe Hajime to Hung Yao-Hsün

Abstract:Before Being and Time was published, Heidegger's philosophy had been introduced to East Asia by Tanabe Hajime, one of the founding fathers of the Kyoto school of philosophy. The very first idea introduced to Japanese academia was the new turn from Husserl's phenomenology of pure consciousness to Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the process of reception and transformation of Heidegger's philosophy in Tanabe Hajime's and Hung Yao-hsün's philosophy, and to unveil the historical episode of the heterogeneity of Heidegger's philosophy in East Asia.