"Often wrongly accused of being fascists, the wartime Kyoto philosophers were among the first non-White thinkers to brood on the secrets of effective national action. They believed, with Marx, that the point of philosophy is to change the world. They exploited a sophisticated idea of history, borrowed partly from Ranke, partly from Hegel, to develop a Japanese understanding of rational self-mastery. This is the first study based on a meticulous examination of the primary sources in Japanese, which clarifies who these forgotten intellectuals were while challenging the orthodox prejudices that explain why we do not know more about them. In their published writings and hitherto secret anti-Tojo seminars of 1940-44, the philosophers of the Kyoto School took the first soundings of the post-White age that will define our tomorrow. They offered us the philosophy of our future."--Jacket.