Noda, Keisuke

Professor of Philosophy

Associate Provost

Dr. Keisuke Noda is a philosopher with a background in phenomenology and hermeneutics. His dissertation, “Disclosure of Presuppositions: Husserlian Phenomenology and Zen” explored the intersection of phenomenology and Zen.

Dr. Noda has been studying the meaning of life by applying philosophical hermeneutics to the subject and incorporating resources in psychology and sociology, including Viktor Frankl, Csikszentmihalyi (flow theory), and others. Dr. Noda studied Viktor Frankl’s psychotherapy, known as logotherapy, and his philosophy at the Viktor Frankl Institute, earning a Diplomate in Logo-philosophy credential. He has been exploring Frankl’s philosophy from a phenomenological/hermeneutic perspective and contributing his research to the journals and at the World Congress of the Institute. 

His research interests include the intersection between the abstract/conceptual and the concrete/narratives/imagery. It resulted in two books with narrative approaches to philosophy, A History of Philosophy as Narratives (two volumes; Taiyo Shobo, 2004; Japanese) and Even Then I Keep Living (2010; Art Village, Japanese). The latter is a philosophical novel that deals with the question of suicide and the meaning of life in narrative form.

Dr. Noda joined the faculty in 1996 and taught courses in philosophy and ethics, including “Meaning of Life,” “Philosophy of Religion,” “Ethics and Social Justice,” “Postmodernism,” “Theories of Human Nature,” “Zen and Western Thoughts,” “Philosophical Foundations,” and other philosophy courses.