國立臺灣大學哲學論評

Abstract / PDF Download (Chinese)

Mutai Risaku (1890-1974) is one of the disciples of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), and founder of the Kyoto School. Appointed as the professor of philosophy in Taiwan Imperial University in 1928, Mutai’s research of Hegel directly influenced Hung Yao-hsün’s notion of “dialectical existence.” Hong did not develop this notion in a clear way, but it actually served as the foundation of his own philosophy. Moreover, this notion is not Hong’s invention, but it is a concept developed in his dialectical ontology, which is a result of his reading and understanding of the philosophy of spirit by Hegel, the existential philosophy by Heidegger, and the reception and transformation of Western philosophy by Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962) and Mutai Risaku. However, Hong’s concept of “dialectical existence” has a special context, namely the context of Taiwan under the colonization of Japan. Different from the Kyoto School itself, Hong’s philosophy is historically significant as the alienation of Western modern philosophy in Taiwan. In this paper, I shall first describe studies of Hegel in the 1930s, and explain the difference between Nishida’s and Mutai’s reading of Hegel. Then I turn to discuss how Mutai’s study of Hegel and “logic of the expressive world” influenced Hong’s concept of “dialectical existence”. Finally, I shall reflect on Hung’s philosophy in the context of the development of philosophy in East Asia.