Abstract
This paper focuses on the relation between sensation and the present in Nishida Kitaro’s Intuition and Reflection in Self-awareness(1917). In 1930s, Nishida deepens his metaphysical consideration of the instant present and Nothingness. In this paper, we try to clarify that the discussion in Intuition and Reflection in Self-awareness provides its basis. With regard to the relation of the present and sensation in Intuition and Reflection in Self-awareness, we take a notice of the influence of Hermann Cohen’s epistemology on Nishida’s theory of sensation. Borrowing some concepts, i.e., Ursprung, Erzeugung from Cohen and transforms them to be empirical, Nishida forms his peculiar discussion on the relation between sensation and the bottomless present. Following discussions, namely the production of the ground in the present that affords possibility of rationalization, sensation as a folding of bottomless experience and the differential character of the present formed by the mutual restriction of x and dx, provides the metaphysical basis of Nishida’s discussion after 1930s. This paper clarifies how the foundation of metaphysic for Nishida is established through the
elaboration of the concept of sensation in 1917.
