Seiichi Hatano

(21 July 1877–17 January 1950) was a Japanese philosopher, best known for his work in the philosophy of religion.

Hatano was born in Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture, and educated at Tokyo Imperial University, from which he graduated in 1899. He was very influential in stimulating the study in Japan of Western philosophy and religion, both through his teaching (he was the first to teach the history of Western philosophy at Tokyo Semmon Gakko, now Waseda University), and through his early writings. These included "An Outline of the History of Western Philosophy" (1897), "The Origins of Christianity" (1909), and "A Study of Spinoza" (1904). The last of these was originally written in German, and only translated into Japanese in 1910).

He opposed a positivist approach to religion, arguing that, though rationality underpinned religious belief, it depended upon an autonomous form of experience.

He died in Tokyo at the age of eighty-two.

Bibliography

*1897: "An Outline of the History of Western Philosophy"
*1909: "The Origins of Christianity"
*1904: "A Study of Spinoza"
*1920: "The Essence of the Philosophy of Religion and its Fundamental Problems"
*1935: "Philosophy of Religion"
*1940: "Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion"
*1943: "Time and Eternity"

ources and external links

*St Elmo Hauman Jr. "Dictionary of Asian Philosophies" (London: Routledge, 1979) ISBN 0-415-03971-1
*John Maraldo. "Contemporary Japanese Philosophy" (in Brian Carr & Indira Mahalingam [edd] . "Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy" (London: Routledge, 1997) ISBN 0-415-24038-7
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6135563 Find-a-Grave profile for Seiichi Hatano]