Abstract
This essay aims to find a concrete example of the 20th century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s concept of “transcendental empiricism” in Sakutaro Hagiwara’s Nekomachi (1935), and simultaneously clarify the underlying meaning of Sakutaro’s conflicting vocabulary of the “true metaphysical reality” and the “metaphysical real world”. Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism refers to experiences that deviate from common sense and alter transcendentalism itself as the basis for providing categories for the subject’s perception.
Extraordinary and impersonal experiences in the transcendental empiricism framework do not disappear after the transcendental moment. Even when the subject returns to their everyday life, their transcendental experiences sensitize the subject such that they may reshape their perceptions of the world. Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism seems to resonate with Sakutaro’s seemingly contradictory expression of the “true metaphysical reality” or “metaphysical real world” in Nekomachi. Therefore, in this essay, I would like to present an interpretation of the contents of Nekomachi in relation to Deleuze’s “transcendental empiricism” and clarify the visionary potential of Nekomachi.
