Philosopher

Suzuki Daisetsu

1870–1966

Also known as D. T. Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

Japanese Buddhist scholar, famous for introducing Zen to the West, whose 'logic of soku-hi', affirmation through negation, shaped Nishida's late philosophy.

Photograph of an elderly man with white hair, glasses and bushy eyebrows, in a kimono — Photograph by Shigeru Tamura, from a 1953 Japanese book of portraits.Shigeru Tamura · Public domain · See the original

Suzuki Daisetsu, known in the West as D. T. Suzuki, kept up a lifelong friendship with Nishida Kitarō that began when they were schoolmates. He was famous above all for bringing Zen to Western audiences.

Nishida acknowledged that he took the ‘logic of soku-hi’ from Suzuki, who had found it in the Diamond Sutra.

Key ideas

The logic of soku-hi: Drawing on the Diamond Sutra, Suzuki described a logic of ‘is and is not’, affirmation by way of negation, which Nishida took to express most deeply the dialectic of absolute nothingness.
Zen for the West: Suzuki is justly famous for helping to introduce Zen to the Western world.
Beside the Kyoto School: Neither a trained academic philosopher nor a member of Kyoto University, Suzuki is best seen as a thinker closely related to the Kyoto School through his long friendship with Nishida.

Tradition: Japanese
Region: Japan
Branches: Philosophy of religion; Logic
Period: Modern Japanese
Themes: Logic and argument

Influences

Suzuki Daisetsu1870–1966

Influenced

Nishida Kitarō1870–1945

Suzuki Daisetsu1870–1966

Influenced

Nishida Kitarō1870–1945

Where these links come from

Nishida Kitarō drew on Suzuki Daisetsu. Source: Bret W. Davis, The Kyoto School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Sources

Bret W. Davis, The Kyoto School, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy