Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitarō

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiv

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2. Pure Experience

   • Nakajima Yuta

   Pages 1-11

3. Epistemology of Absolute Free Will: Nishida’s Notion of Self-Determination in Relation to Cohen and Schopenhauer

   • Itabashi Yūjin

   Pages 13-25

4. “Self-Awareness”: A Pervasive Concept in Nishida’s Philosophy

   • Okada Katsuaki

   Pages 27-39

5. The Development of the Concept of Basho (Place) in Nishida’s Philosophy

   • Akitomi Katsuya

   Pages 41-56

6. The Dialectical Universal

   • Minobe Hitoshi

   Pages 57-67

7. Acting Intuition

   • Mine Hideki

   Pages 69-83

8. Between the Sea and the World of Historical Reality: Reconsideration for a Philosophy of Multiple-Historicity

   • Kazashi Nobuo

   Pages 85-99

9. Placing Nishida Within the History of Philosophy

   • Ōhashi Ryosuke

   Pages 101-116

10. The Place and Significance of Nishida’s Philosophy in Europe and North America

    • John C. Maraldo

    Pages 117-130

11. Is Nishida Kitarō an Eastern Philosopher?

    • Cheung Ching-yuen

    Pages 131-150

12. Facing the Absolute Inside: Nishida’s Conception of Religion

    • Gereon Kopf

    Pages 151-166

13. Science and Religion in Nishida Philosophy

    • Matsumaru Hisao

    Pages 167-181

14. Nishida’s Philosophy and Art

    • Kobayashi Nobuyuki

    Pages 183-194

15. Significance and Positioning of Nishida’s Philosophy in the Contemporary World

    • Arisaka Yoko

    Pages 195-206

16. Nishida Kitarō and Virtue Ethics: With a Focus on Zen no Kenkyū

    • Lam Wing Keung

    Pages 207-218

17. Back Matter

    Pages 219-240

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This book offers the first comprehensive collection of essays on the key concepts of Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945), the father of modern Japanese philosophy and founder of the Kyoto School. The essays analyze several of the major philosophical concepts in Nishida, including pure experience, absolute will, place, and acting intuition. They examine the meaning and positioning of Nishida’s philosophy in the history of philosophy, as well as in the contemporary world, and discuss the relevance of his philosophy in the present context. The book next looks at the significance of Nishida’s philosophy in the wider contexts of science, arts, and religion.

The book includes a glossary of key terms that have been translated in a unified manner throughout the volume.

• Kitaro Nishida
• Kyoto School
• pure experience
• absolute nothingness
• contradictory self-identity
• acting intuition
• dialectical universal
• self-determination of nothingness
• inverse correspondence

“This collection of essays has several virtues. … This book finally closes a gap present in the secondary literature on Nishida in English by making accessible the interpretive work of Japanese scholars to a larger audience. On the other hand, the book sheds light on some little studied aspects of Nishida and some of his more complex concepts. At the same time, however, reading the book highlights some of the challenges of research to come.” (Fernando Wirtz, Philosophy East and West, Vol. 73 (4), October, 2023)​

• Director, EKO-Haus der Japanischen Kultur, Düsseldorf, Germany

  Hisao Matsumaru

• Institute for Philosophy, University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany

  Yoko Arisaka

• Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, USA

  Lucy Christine Schultz

Hisao Matsumaru is currently Professor of Philosophy and Faculty of International Liberal Arts at the Dokkyo University in Soka, Saitama, where he has also served as Dean of the Faculty. He has also been a guest professor or held research fellow positions at Duisburg University, Germany, Cornell University, and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. He is currently President of Nishida Philosophy Association in Japan.

Yoko Arisaka has been Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco until 2007. She has held research fellow positions at the UC Humanities Research Institute, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie Hannover, Germany. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Hildesheim, Germany.

Policies and ethics