![]() ![]() I demonstrate how Foucault misconstrued Zen Buddhism as a practical philosophy that is concerned with the self, and failed to recognize the extent to which the Zen Buddhism he was confronted with is a modern ideological construct informed by quintessentially Western philosophical sensibilities. Foucault seems to have been interested in Zen Buddhism as a possible Eastern variant of Hellenistic self-care. The question driving this thesis is whether we could understand Tanabe's call for self-abandonment as a Foucauldian technique of the self. By contrast, Tanabe thought that any reliance on the self should be abandoned in favor of a life of compassionate action lived hearing the calling of a religious Other-power. In his later work, Foucault shows how in Hellenistic and Roman culture immanent values were shaped through self-care, thereby bringing to the attention a compelling alternative to the dependence on transcendent values that we have grown accustomed to through centuries of Christianity. ![]() ![]() This master's thesis sets out to compare the thought of the Japanese Kyoto School philosopher Tanabe Hajime (1889-1962) with that of the French philosopher and social critic Michel Foucault (1926-1984), particularly on the topic of self-care and the possibility of personal transformation. ![]()
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