Nishida’s philosophy and the ‘Logic of the Eastern Weltanschauung’

Reconsidering the “Problem of Japanese Culture”

Abstract

Nishida sought to elaborate a ‘Logic of the Eastern Weltanschauung.’ This paper examines this core project with reference to his essay The Problem of Japanese Culture, a text which was published under the special circumstances of wartime Japan. What was Nishida for – and what was he against – when he wrote about Japanese culture? Herein, we find that in discussing Eastern Logic in The Problem of Japanese Culture, Nishida actually sought to emphasize the ‘universality’ of this logic, as opposed to the nationalistic intellectual projects of his era. At the same time, Nishida was skeptical of the general concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’ which would neglect the particularity or diversity of different cultures. This attempt to take account of both sides – universality/particularity – is one central aspect of the later period of Nishida’s philosophy. Nevertheless, the text Problem of Japanese Culture is not well-balanced: it overemphasizes the universality of the Eastern logic, at the cost of particularity. In conclusion, this article points out the necessity to pay equal attention to the particularity of Eastern logic itself.