Office hours: Thursdays after 14.00 (please make an appointment with the office of Japanese Studies and Chinese Studies in advance)
Table of contents
Current functions
- Professor of Japanology, PI ERC Advanced Grant Project “Time in Medieval Japan” (TIMEJ)
- Visiting Professor, Research Institute for Time Studies, Yamaguchi University
- Council member and previous president, International Society for the Study of Time (ISST)
- Board member «Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie»
- Board member, Swiss Asia Society (SAG)
- Board member, Fachkommission Gender Studies
- Board member, Center for Medieval Studies Zurich
- Co-editor Series “Welten Ostasiens” (Berlin), Journal “Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques” (ASIA)
- Editorial Board “Bochum Yearbook for East Asian Studies” (BJOAF)
Research interests
- Japanese philosophy and critical thought
- Japanese mythologies
- symbolic forms and doctrines in Dōgen
- time in medieval culture
Academic Biography
Professor Raji Steineck studied Japanology, philosophy and musicology, obtaining an M.A. in Japanese studies (1993) and a Dr. phil. in philosophy (1999) at Bonn University. In 2006, he received the venia legendi in Japanology from the same university. During research for his doctoral dissertation on fundamental structures of mystical thought and later on as a postdoc, he spent a total of 28 months at Kyoto University, with scholarships from the DAAD, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Humboldt Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Between 2002 and 2006, he was back at Bonn University, working as a research fellow in the group „Bioethical Conflicts in Japan.“ During this period, he published a number of articles on topics such as the debates on brain death and human embryo research in Japan and prepared a monograph on notions of the human body in Japanese bioethical debates (published in 2007). In addition, he taught in the departments of Japanese studies and philosophy, and was invited as a teaching fellow to Adam-Mickiewicz-University in Poznań (Poland) in 2004.
From 2007 to early 2008, he was professor of Japanese Intellectual History at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, before taking office as associate professor of Japanology in Zurich in February 2008. In 2010, he became director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, and upon formation of the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies in 2013, one of its founding directors. In 2012, he served as a visiting professor of ethics at Doshisha University in Kyoto. In the same year, he also organized the triennial meeting of the German Association of Japanese Studies in Zurich and was elected as one of the presidents of the association. He is an active board member of the International Society for the Study of Time (since 2007, president since 2012) and the Swiss Assosiation of Asian Studies (since 2008).
Professor Steineck’s work is informed by a sustained interest in symbolic form and how it relates to intellectual content. His 2014 monograph on Symbolic form and function (in German) contains a critical assessment of Cassirer’s seminal work and prepares the ground for future applications of this theory in the field of Japanese studies and beyond. A monograph on ancient Japanese mythologies is currently in press.
In recent years, Professor Steineck has organized collaborative work in the historiography of modern Japanese philosophy, concepts of authorship in pre-modern East Asian literatures, the rhetorical analysis of Japanese Buddhist texts, and a critical assessment of Marxian theory in postwar Japan. He has also contributed to a transcultural theory of time and is currently preparing a collaborative project on time in medieval Japanese society.
Publications since 2008 (ZORA)
Recent monographs and edited volumes
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| Steineck, Raji C. ラジ・C・シュタイネック. Hensō sareru shinwa: shōchō keishiki no riron kara mita Nihon kodai Shinwa 変奏される神話: 象徴形式の理論から見た日本古代神話. Übersetzt von Bandō Yōsuke 板東洋介. Tokyo University Press 東京大学出版会, 2026. | Zen Time: Dōgen's Uji in Context, Albany: SUNY Press, 2025, 319 pp. |
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| Kritik der symbolischen Formen II: Zur Konfiguration altjapanischer Mythologien, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2017 (Philosophie Interkulturell, 4), 345 pp. | Kritik der symbolischen Formen I: Symbolische Form und Funktion, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2014 (Philosophie Interkulturell, 3), 148 pp. |
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| Begriff und Bild der modernen japanischen Philosophie, herausgegeben mit Elena Louisa Lange und Paulus Kaufmann, Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 2014 (Philosophie interkulturell, 2), 348 pp. | Concepts of Philosophy in Asia and the Islamic World, Vol. 1: China and Japan, herausgegeben mit Ralph Weber, Elena Louisa Lange und Robert H. Gassmann, Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2018 (Studien zur interkulturellen Philosophie / Studies in Intercultural Philosophy / Études de philosophie interculturelle, 25), 742 pp. |
ZORA Publication List
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Publications
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Hiromatsu Wataru : Theory and Practice of Relationalism and the Critique of Reification. In C. Perkins & F. De Vargas (Eds.), Political Thought and Japan’s New Left Movements; Transformations in Radical Theory (pp. 105–118). University of Chicago Press. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/political-thought-and-japans-new-left-movements-9781350534681/
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Mythological dissent: cases from Japan In J. Imbach, J. Jaguscik, & B. Knüsel Adamec (Eds.), Re-thinking literary China: essays in honor of Andrea Riemenschnitter (Vol. 40, pp. 125–137). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111450858-007/html
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Toward a wider horizon: restricting the Umwelt Principle In S. Nelson, A. Misztal, & W. Schweidler (Eds.), Time and Measure (Vol. 18, pp. 15–27). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004723634_003
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Japanese Theoretical Approaches in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Vols. 79, Heft 2). De Gruyter. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/journal/key/asia/79/2/html
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Zen time: Dōgen’s Uji in context. State University of New York Press. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/17053
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Bringing historical materialism to Davos (and Kyoto) European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, 10, 394–406. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004680173
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Zur transzendentalphilosophischen Programmatik der ‘Kritik der Kultur’ als ‘Kritik symbolischer Formen.’ In M. Bunte & F. Völker (Eds.), Transzendentalität und Transkulturalität (No. 1; pp. 20–42). wbg Academic. https://www.herder.de/wissen/shop/p8/88685-transzendentalitaet-und-transkulturalitaet-open-access-pdf/
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「物」から見た道元の思想 Shisō, 77–93. https://tanemaki.iwanami.co.jp/posts/8241
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When Zen becomes philosophy: the case of Dōgen’s Uji Journal of Chan Buddhism : East Asian and Global Perspectives, 3, 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1163/25897179-12340018
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Genjō kōan / Dōgen Zenji https://metis.ethz.ch/booklets/
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From Uji to Being-Time (and back): translating Dōgen into philosophy In R. Müller & G. Wrisley (Eds.), Dōgen’s texts: manifesting religion and/as philosophy? (No. 35; pp. 207–224). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42246-1_11
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Special issue: borders, thresholds, barriers in Japan : Vol. 77,2. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2023-frontmatter2
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Outside(r) fetishisms: Pathologies of Displaced Critique In E. L. Lange & J. Pickett-Depaolis (Eds.), The Conformist Rebellion: Marxist Critiques of the Contemporary Left (pp. 237–250). Rowman & Littlefield.
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Outside (r) Fetishisms In E. L. Lange & J. Pickett-Depaolis (Eds.), The Conformist Rebellion : Marxist Critiques of the Contemporary Left (pp. 237–250). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
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運命と偶然の彼方？ ― 道元の「有時」の思想 比較思想研究 = Hikaku shisō kenkyū, 48, 29–35.
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The Ōshū Fujiwara—An interdisciplinary study on the history, culture and medical assessment of the oldest known mummified human remains in Japan (late Heian, 12th century AD) PLoS ONE, 16, e0253693. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253693
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Wir sind alle gleich. Und alle anders: Der Begriff Kultur sollte die Menschen einen, stattdessen dient er nur noch dazu, die Grenzen zwischen «uns» und den «anderen» zu ziehen Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 32. https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/ernst-cassirers-kulturkritik-alle-sind-gleich-und-alle-anders-ld.1593327?reduced=true
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The missing piece in E. Cassirer’s theory of symbolic forms: the economy Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 18, 291–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40844-020-00191-0
Pagination
Actual lectures at the University of Zurich
Vorlesungsverzeichnis
| V-Nr | Course | Start / End | Date | Lecturers | Room |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3097 |
06ST279-600a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 2392 |
06ST279-604a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 2388 |
06ST279-703a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 2016 |
06QO279-MAa
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 1667 |
06ST290-015a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 1668 |
06ST290-016a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 0831 |
06ST290-113a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 1669 |
06ST290-400a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 1004 |
06ST290-801a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 0833 |
06ST290-802a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 0834 |
06ST290-803a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 0418 |
06QO290-BAa
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 2014 |
06QO290-MAa
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 1665 |
06UE290-021a
|
from 17.02.2026
to 26.05.2026
|
Di 14:00-15:45 | Raji Steineck | RAA-G-15 |
| 1698 |
06VU290-502a
|
from 16.02.2026
to 18.05.2026
|
Mo 16:15-18:00, bis 18.5. | Raji Steineck | ZUB-3-317 |
| 4910 |
06ST290-405a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | David Chiavacci Raji Steineck | siehe Details |
| 4887 |
06KOG22o001a
|
from 20.02.2026
to 22.05.2026
|
20.2., 13.3., 27.3., 22.5., jeweils 14:00-18:00 | Simone Müller Raji Steineck | ZUB-3-317 |
| 0832 |
06ST290-111a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck Daniela Tan | siehe Details |
| 1108 |
06ST290-603a
|
from 01.02.2026
to 31.07.2026
|
gemäss Ankündigung oder indiv. Vereinbarung | Raji Steineck Daniela Tan | siehe Details |
ラジ・シュタイネック
文学博士・日本学主任教授・元東洋学科長
Phone: +41 44 634 40 85 / Fax: +41 44 634 49 21
raji.steineck@aoi.uzh.ch
研究分野： 日本思想史・哲学
主な研究テーマ：「日本のシンボル形式」、「シンボル形式からみた日本神話」、「古代・中世の時間概念とイメージ」、「道元及び禅の思想的 研究や修辞学的分析」、「近・現代日本における哲学の概念とイメージ」、「現代日本における倫理学の動向（生命倫理、技術倫理等）」、「自然の概念と物象 化の理論」等。
主な著作：『神秘主義思想の基本構造』（２０００）、『道元に於ける心身問題』（２００３）、『日本生命倫理学に於ける身体の思想』（２００７）、 『近・現代日本における哲学の概念とイメージ』（共編、２０１４）、『シンボル形式の批判第一巻：シンボル形式とシンボル的機能』（２０１４）。
講演会：
『「装置」としての「脳死」』、2012年7月20日(金)午後3時、立命館大学衣笠キャンパス学而館第3研究会室
『神話と主体性』、2014年1月11日、京都工業繊維大学
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