Takeshi Morisato (森里 武)

Lecturer

Biography

Background

I am a Japanese national who grew up in Tokyo, Japan, but was born in Mexico City, in the year of the Dog. After studying and teaching philosophy in the United States, Europe, and China, I ended up specialising in East Asian and Japanese philosophy. I am currently the editor of several journals on Japanese philosophy and of the book series Thinking World Philosophies (Edinburgh University Press, 2025-). I generally publish books on Japanese philosophy in English and Africana philosophy in Japanese but there has been some crossover in the area of Afro-Asian philosophy.

Qualifications

Ph.D. (Philosophy), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (2016)

M.Phil. (Philosophy), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, (2012)

M.A. (Philosophy), Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles CA, USA (2009)

B.A. (Philosophy), University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney NE, USA (2007)

Responsibilities & affiliations

Edinburgh Buddhist Studies

European Network of Japanese Philosophy

Asian Philosophical Texts 

International Society of East Asian Philosophy 

Undergraduate teaching

  • Buddhist Philosophy
  • Japanese Philosophy
  • Introduction to World Philosophies (IHOP B) 

 

Postgraduate teaching

  • Buddhist Philosophy
  • Japanese Philosophy

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am open to topics in the field of "world philosophies," "East Asian/Japanese philosophy," and "Buddhist philosophy."  

Current PhD students supervised

First Supervision

  • Ellie Palmer, "Being After Death: The Temporal Implications of an Extended Spatial Identity in Japanese Philosophy."

Joint Supervision

  • Hannah Sasaoka-Berns (University of Gent), "The Primacy of Lived-Space: Architectural Theory and Practice in the Life and Work of Shirai Sei'ichi (白井晟一)."  
  • Douglas Atkinson (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), "Spectral Inversions of Beckett: On the Japanese Reception of Beckett’s Prose." 
  • Anttoni Kuusela (University of Jyvaskyla), "Tyhjä subjekti: modernin subjektin kriisi Nishitani Keijin ja Hisamatsu Shin’ichin filosofioissa." 

Research summary

My AOS is Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, and Existentialism. 

My philosophical education included programs in both North American and European institutions which cherished the “History of Philosophy,” while remaining critically inclusive of continental philosophy. As a result, my first entry into the area of East Asian and Japanese philosophy was a comparative/continental approach. I now examine the histories of East Asian and Japanese philosophies within the context of “world philosophies.” 

Most of my recent publications are dedicated to contemporary Japanese philosophy (especially the Kyoto School). However, with a view to teaching an introduction to world philosophies at the PPLS, I am currently working on a comparative examination of Buddhist and Africana philosophy.  

 

Affiliated research centres

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