This presentation attempts to show how Nishida’s philosophy and phenomenology relate to each other in terms of the “body” and “history”. Roughly speaking, phenomenology bases itself upon the principle that “what appears, appears”[das Erscheinende erscheint].(This is not a mere tautology.)Contrary to the prevalent view, body and history are central issues for phenomenology. Phenomenology describes how the Erscheinendes is initially accomplished and how it appears as a sense-unity. The medium of this process is the body, and the sense that appears through the process plays in history the role of a signifier of direction. These analyses relate to Nishida’s concept of the “historical body”. In today’s historical situation, bodies encounter other bodies interculturally and become hybridized(not only in the biological sense, but in the sense that intercultural encounters influence the constitutive functions of the body). New things appear, and those who live within the framework of tradition can easily lose their way. The dialogue between Nishida’s philosophy and phenomenology, which has already begun, can expand our view of this new reality.
