Nishida Kitarō’s Philosophy of Life traces the development of the philosopher’s thought by focusing on the keyword “life” as a unifying thread. Active from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, Nishida was part of the first generation of Japanese philosophers who tried to develop an original philosophy under the influence of – and in response to – Western philosophy. In his native Japan, he has often been interpreted in the context of Eastern thought and Zen Buddhism, as well as in relation to phenomenology (i.e., Husserl and Heidegger). The current volume instead presents an alternative reading of Nishida, noting the influence of William James, Henri Bergson and Neo-Kantianism on his thought, and highlighting a line of development that runs in parallel to the thought of the midtwentieth century French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze.

This is the definitive work on the first and greatest of Japan's twentieth-century philosophers, Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945). Interspersed throughout the narrative of Nishida's life and thought is a generous selection of the philosopher's own essays, letters, and short presentations, newly translated into English.

Nishida Kitaro's reformulation of the major issues of Western philosophy from a Zen standpoint of "absolute nothingness" and "absolutely contradictory self-identity" represents the boldest speculative enterprise of modern Japan, continued today by his successors in the "Kyoto School" of philosophy. This English translation of Intuition and Reflection in Self-Consciousness evokes the movement and flavor of the original, clarifies its obscurities, and eliminates the repetitions. It sheds new light on the philosopher's career, revealing a long struggle with such thinkers as Cohen, Natorp, Husserl, Fichte, and Bergson, that ended with Nishida's break from the basic ontological assumptions of the West. Throughout labyrinthine arguments, Nishida never loses sight of his theme: the irreducibility and unobjectifiability of the act of self-consciousness which constitutes the self. Extensive annotation is provided for the first time in any edition of Nishida's work. Historians of Japanese philosophy and culture, and all those interested in the interaction of Eastern and Western thought-forms, now have a document which highlights many of the cultural, psychological, and intellectual dynamics that have shaped Japanese intellectual life in one of its most fascinating and ambitious manifestations.

In recent years several books by major figures in Japan's modern philosophical tradition have appeared in English, exciting readers by their explorations of the borderlands between philosophy and religion. What has been wanting, however, is a book in a Western language to elucidate the life and thought of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), Japan's first philosopher of world stature and the originator of what has come to be called the Kyoto School. No one is more qualified to write such a book than Nishitani Keiji, whose lifetime coincides with the rise and flowering of the Kyoto School and whose own critical contribution to Japanese thought has been so important. Nishida Kitaro is a translation of essays Nishitani wrote about his teacher from 1936 to 1968 and published as a book in 1985. This series of meditations by one master on another provides a remarkable, living portrait of Nishida the person and conveys the enthusiasm he aroused in his students. Examining Nishida's most important work, An Inquiry into the Good, Nishitani penetrates to the core of his thought and presents it in language that is a marvel of clarity.

"An Inquiry into the Good, the earliest work of Kitarō Nishida, established its author as the foremost Japanese philosopher of the twentieth century. The book represents the foundation of Nishida's philosophy, which reflects both his deep study of Zen Buddhism and his thorough analysis of Western philosophy. In this important new translation, two scholars -- one Japanes and one American -- have worked together to present a lucid and accurate rendition of this basic work. They have also included an enlightening introduction and ample notes to aid the Western reader. Nishida sets forth the notion of "pure experience"--The concept that pure, or direct, experience precedes the separation of subject and object and is true reality. He next considers reality, investigating its relation to thinking, volition, and intuition. The Good, which Nishida considered to be the realization of our internal demands or ideals, is analyzed in the light of the nature of reality and pure experience. In conclusion, Nishida suggests a theory of God as the unifier of the universe and the universe as an expression of God. Throughout he touches upon the work of Western philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Fichte, William James, and John Dewey in order to explicate his ideas"-- Front flap.

When we hear the term "Japanese philosophy" we think of Zen Buddhism or the Shinto scriptures. Yet one of the great 20th century interpreters of Western philosophy, Nishida Kitaro, lived and wrote in the Japanese islands all his life, laboring at an ultimate synthesis of oriental thought and Western hermeneutics. To be sure, Nishida's aim was to understand his own cultural influences in relation to the Western world. What distinguished him, however, was his passion for rendering oriental metaphysics understandable in the language of Western philosophy, and his attempts to contrast the paradoxicality of Buddhist logic with the logical strategies of Aristotle, Kant, or Hegel. Featured in this book is an interpretation of Nishida's writings. Professor Carter focuses on the Japanese thinker's notion of "basho," a concept of nothingness as field, place or topos as borrowed from Plato's Tim'us. Expounding on the logical foundations and archaic elements in Nishida's work, and carefully explaining Nishida's critical approach to the questions of God, religion and morality, and pure existence, this discerning book offers students of Western philosophy and oriental thought alike a highly readable introduction to the teachings of a true world philosopher.

The past twenty years have seen the publication of numerous translations and commentaries on the principal philosophers of the Kyoto School, but so far no general overview and evaluation of their thought has been available, either in Japanese or in Western languages. James Heisig, a longstanding participant in these efforts, has filled that gap with Philosophers of Nothingness. In this extensive study, the ideas of Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, and Nishitani Keiji are presented both as a consistent school of thought in its own right and as a challenge to the Western philosophical tradition to open itself to the original contribution of Japan.