Tanabe Hajime and Hegel’s Dialectic

This chapter recounts Tanabe Hajime's early engagement with G.W.F. Hegel from 1927 to 1931, a period often overlooked in Kyoto School scholarship. It challenges assumptions that Tanabe's reflections on Hegel are insignificant or better addressed in his later works like Logic of Species. This phase marked Tanabe's first serious encounter with Hegel's dialectic, which he called a powerful weapon and sought to incorporate into his own philosophy. The chapter reveals how Tanabe moved away from his neo-Kantian roots and efforts to promote Nishidian philosophy, turning instead to Hegel in an attempt to forge his own original path. It underscores how Hegelian Philosophy and Dialectic captures a critical moment of philosophical struggle that played a formative role in shaping Tanabean philosophy.