Hayashi Hōkō is remembered for arguments the next generation could not ignore.
The record lists Hayashi Hōkō as Japanese philosopher (1644-1732).
Hayashi Hōkō was born at Edo in 1644. His recorded nationality is Japan.
This was the century in which philosophy separated itself from theology and began to ask what could be known with certainty.
A philosophical position survives not by being proved but by resisting every attempt to dispose of it.
That the work was done from Japan matters: philosophical traditions, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.
Hayashi Hōkō died in 1732, aged 88. The arguments remain in print, which is the form in which philosophy survives.
