This course begins with a careful study of a group of modern Japanese thinkers (Nishida, Tanabe, Nishitani) known as the Kyoto School (Kyoto Gaku-ha) who developed their original philosophies by creatively combining the spiritual and intellectual traditions of Mahayana Buddhism with the Western philosophical tradition, most notably with the work of Hegel and Heidegger. We focus on the concept of “Absolute Nothingness” and how it is similar and different to Western ontologies of Being as well as what it implies for political, psychological, spiritual, and artistic life. We also study significant criticisms of the Kyoto School (Tosaka, Miki, et al.) and re-evaluate how such a project persists today as well as how it might make a claim on possible futures.