Towards an East Asian educational dialogue: Kyoto School and New Confucianism as philosophical resources

In recent decades, non-Western philosophical resources have gained increasing attention in the field of philosophy of education. However, two aspects of this growing body of works focusing on East Asian intellectual traditions stand out. First, when East Asian intellectual traditions are drawn upon, most often the works selected are from 'ancient' times, rather than from the modern period. Second, the comparative studies are often restricted to dialogues between East Asian and Western philosophers, while the conversation between different East Asian philosophers and traditions is less developed. As such, in the present paper, I seek to highlight the existing conversation between two modern intellectual traditions in China and Japan, namely the Kyoto School (京都学派) and New Confucianism (新儒家) and in doing so, discuss their possible contribution to the contemporary discourse of philosophy of education. I will first examine Japanese scholar Asakura Tomomi's (朝倉友海) attempt to synthesize Kyoto School and New Confucianism into 'East Asian philosophy' based on their connection with Tiantai Buddhism. Then, I will critically discuss and advance Asakura's approach based on the shared 'transculturality' of the two schools. By focusing on the common concern for modernity shared by the two schools, I suggest that the discourse around modernity and postmodernity can become a field wherein New Confucianism, Kyoto School and contemporary Western philosophies can have in-depth conversations and develop practical implications for educational studies.