Shigenori Nagatomo

Shigenori Nagatomo

  • College of Liberal Arts

    Religion

    Professor and Graduate Chair

    Affiliated Faculty

    Programs
    • Asian Studies
    • Global Studies
Office Location

Mazur Hall, 6th Floor

Expertise

East Asian Buddhism, Comparative Philosophy, Mind-Body Problem, Meditation

Biography

Shigenori Nagatomo received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Hawai’i in 1985 where he studied comparative philosophy focusing on Asian and European traditions. He has been interested in the mind-body problem with a particular emphasis on Yogic, Buddhist (Zen), and Daoist meditation methods, and supplements these with Jungian psychology. He has been teaching twenty-five years in the department of religion at Temple University where he is Professor of Comparative Philosophy and East Asian Buddhism.

Selected Publications

He is the co-author of Science and Comparative Philosophy with David E. Shaner and YUASA Yasuo (Brill Academic Publishers, 1989), and author of Attunement Through the Body (SUNY, 1992), A Philosophical Investigation of Miki Kiyosh’s Concept of Humanism (The Edwin and Mellen Press, 1995), and The Diamondsūtra’s Logic of Not and a Critique of Katz’s Contextualism: Toward a Non-dualist Philosophy (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006). He has also translated many books including: YUASA Yasuo’s The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind Body Theory (SUNY, 1987) with Thomas P. Kasulis; YUASA Yasuo’s The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy (SUNY, 1993) with Monte Hull; YUASA Yasuo’s Overcoming Modernity: Synchronicity and Image-Thinking with John Krummel (SUNY, 2009); Nishida Kitarō’ Place and Dialectic: Two Essays of Nishida Kitarō, (UK: Oxford University Press , 2011) with John Krummel]; Hiroshi Motoyama’s The Buddha’s Satori (Tokyo: Shūkyō shinrigaku kenkyūjo, 2010); Hiroshi Motoyama’s Being and the Logic of Interactive Function (Encinitas, Calif.: CIHS, 2009) with John Krummel.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

  • Rel 53 Intro to World Religions (Core Course)
  • Rel-0811-001-Asian Behavior and Thought (GenEd)
  • Rel 50 Intro to Asian Religions (Core Course)
  • Rel 113 Buddhism Psychoanalysis & Existential Analysis
  • Rel 115 Intro to Zen Buddhism
  • Rel 122 Intro to Buddhism
  • Rel 368 Comparative Mysticism
  • IH52-47 Intellectual Heritage (Modern Western Intellectual History)
  • H192 The Body, Meditation and Healing (Honors Course)

Graduate

  • Rel 413 Proseminar in Japanese Buddhism
  • Rel 412 Proseminar in Buddhism
  • Rel 4 Foundations in Philosophy of Religions
  • Rel 414 Foundations in Japanese Buddhism
  • Rel 524 Foundations in Buddhist Thought
  • Rel 614 Topics in Buddhist Thought: the Kyoto School
  • Rel 990 Special Topics: Japanese Buddhism
  • Rel 723 Religion and Contemporary Thought: Jung & the East
  • Rel 611 Religion and Modern Thought: The Body: East & West
  • Rel 720 Religious Experience: East and West

Independent Studies

Undergraduate

  • Religious Experiences
  • Intro to Buddhism
  • Death and Dying
  • Intro to Zen Buddhism
  • Japanese Buddhism

Graduate

  • Philosophy of the Kyoto School
  • Philosophy of Nishida Kitarō
  • Topics in Buddhist Thought
  • Reading of Abhidharmakosa
  • Reading of Watsuji’s Ethics as a Philosophical Anthropology
  • Reading on Eastern Mediation Texts