An Attempt to interpret Nishida Philosophy

Abstract

This essay represents an attempt to interpret the philosophy of Nishida Kitarô(1870-1945), through the leading concepts of “unification”, “place”, “being”, “non-being” and “nothingness”, especially emphasizing the relation to Western philosophy as well as Contemporary Japanese philosophy. Nothingness shows us some diffuse traces we would like to clear out with the light of being and the shadows of non-being. For the destiny of being is always to return to the scene of presence. However, once logically apprehended and phenomenologically approached, nothingness reveals a remarkable topological structure, that we try to explain by distinguishing the three main categories of “ontology”, “me-ontology” and “neontology”. Understood in this way, Nishida philosophy can be defined as a radical endeavor to put into question the traditional problems of metaphysics and moral, in particular concerning the distinction between space and place, fullness and void and the relation of the one and the many.