“This Individual” as “Acting”

About the Individual and “Dialectic Material Body” in Determinations as Self-awareness of Nothingness

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the structure of establishment of “only” and “singular” “this individual”, focusing on the concept of “individual” in Nishida Kitarō’s middle work “Determinations as Self- awareness of Nothingness” (1932). First, this paper focuses on the overlapping of “the material world” and “consciousness” and “death” and “living” and “act”, after confirming that the “individual” comes not only involve humans but also non-human things. In this way, this paper discusses the structure of establishment of individual caused by “self-determination of absolute nothingness”. Second, this paper focuses on the “body” and attempts to indicate that the aspects of “death” and “living” are in the “body” and that it is the basis of presence of the individual as “acting”. Lastly, it is confirmed that the “body” as the basis of the presence of the individual is fundamentally “irrational” and, thanks to this irrationality of the “body”, individual is established as an only and singular being. Through this consideration, this paper reveals that in Determinations as Self-awareness of Nothingness, every individual as “acting,” including non- human things, is established as “only” and “singular” “this individual”.