On “active intuition” and the artistic creative action in the philosophy of Kitaro Nishida in his later works

Abstract

In the works of Kitaro Nishida,“action”had been the most important concept from his earlier period. In his later period he built up the concept of “active intuition”as the fundamental way of existence. From the concepts “theoria”and“poiesis”of Plotinos, he made up the concept of“intuition”and “action”.“Action”and“intuition”coincide in the Self. To act means to see, i.e. to intuit. So he calls it“active intuition”.“Action”and“intuition”arise from the Body of the Self as the expression of Life. Body means instrument for the acting Self. When the Self works on the outside world, the outside world as the environment defines the Self, mutually. The environment means nature and the society, i.e. the world. The Self, expressing itself, acts on the world, and the world defines the Self. Nishida calls this mutual action or definition between the self and the world“dialectic”. The structure of the world and that of the self is also“dialectic”. Our action as“active intuition” arises from the bottom of the world which defines itself expressively. It is the act of self definition of the historical world. The historical world defines itself by the active intuition.