<Articles>On the "Ordinary" Style of Philosophy and the Tradition of the Kyoto School : A Sketch of Clinical Philosophy and Clinical Education in Postwar Japan (The 6th International Symposium between the Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University (Japan), and the Institute of Education, University of London (UK))

Abstract

In the field of philosophy in postwar Japan there has been some academic 'allergic resistance' to the tradition of the Kyoto School. Some Japanese philosophers in younger generation, directly or indirectly, criticize and dispel it through their efforts to philosophize not in an 'esoteric' language of the Kyoto School but in a language that is not far removed everyday speech. They seem to share as the premise the metaphysical schematism as follows: Kyoto/Tokyo, prewar/postwar, esoteric language/everyday speech, scholastic style/own style for philosophy etc. Interestingly enough, philosophers of the Kyoto School, however, also intended and tried to philosophize on their 'own'style in an 'ordinary' language. Namely, it can be said that they stood on the same horizon as their critics in a sense, even if their way and their language of philosophy sometimes seemed to us to be 'esoteric' or 'scholastic' in appearance. They had their own reasons for the philosophy in such a style, and we should take its necessity into consideration in their own context. This paper aims to sketch out the philosophical heritage of the Kyoto School in postwar Japan and tries to find out a prime example of such heritage in its idea of the 'toward the ordinariness in daily life'. This philosophical heritage has especially been developed under the concept of the clinical (Rinsho in Japanese, 臨床) in various fields such as clinical philosophy, clinical psychology, clinical science of nursing as well as clinical pedagogy. In this paper, it is described what the fundamental ideas of the clinical are and what kind of concerns and possibilities they have.