トランス・デサンダンスとしての超越

When it comes to pinpointing the key concept that guides Takeuchi Yoshinori’s thought and gives it its direction, we can say, I think, that it is the idea of trans- descendence. <br> Takeuchi’s research covers Shinran’s Kyogyōshinshō, Early Buddhism, Philosophy of Religion, Phenomenology of Religion, etc., and the idea of trans-descendence resonates, while changing its form, in all these fields, as it were, as the carrying bass note. <br> Takeuchi himself, however, stops at suggesting this concept, without formally discussing it. Therefore it gives the impression of floating in Takeuchi’s thought world, a bit like an iceberg the bulk of which is hidden under the water surface. I would like, therefore, to examine how it appears in each of the above mentioned fields and, by joining these forms together, to bring out the main motives of Takeuchi’s thought. <br> The concept of Trans-descendence was first used by Jean Wahl. Takeuchi borrowed the term from him, but gave it a different meaning. In Jean Wahl the term denotes a descent into a level of deep experience that opens up reality, as seen in artists; Takeuchi uses it to signify a deepening of the awareness of the human finitude. He attempts, namely, with the help of this concept, to clarify the nature of the transcendence, which opens up through the self-awareness of finitude. <br> Ordinarily, the attention to human finitude is thought to lead away from transcendence or even to negate it. There is, however, a transcendence that stands by being negated. Such a transcendence is what Takeuchi calls “trans-descendence (inverted transcendence).” This transcendence does not obtain by going beyond the finite; it opens up in the midst of the self-awareness of finitude. In order to show the special nature of this transcendence, Takeuchi often contrasts it with the “transcendental” standpoint. If the transcendental standpoint consists in having a foothold in the topical opening that reveals itself at the bottom of the existence of the self, according to Takeuchi, the particularity of the transcendence that is trans-descendence is to be found in grasping the existence of the self in the encounter with a “Thou,” that breaks through that topical expansion and comes from the other side of it. <br> Takeuchi attempts to show this transcendence, which opens up in the self-awareness of finitude, in the fields of the Philosophy of Religion, Early Buddhism, Shinran’s thought, and so on. How would it be grasped in each of these fields?