“Acting Intuition” and the Problem of Historicity in Nishida Kitaro

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  • 西田幾多郎の「行為的直観」と歴史性の問題
  • ニシダ キタロウ ノ コウイテキ チョッカン ト レキシセイ ノ モンダイ

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Abstract

Nishida’s philosophy has often been criticized for overlooking the problem of history. In particular, his fundamental notion of “acting intuition” is often accused of lacking any element of historicity. The term “acting intuition” may lead one to imagine a kind of religious or aesthetic intuition that transcends the historical world in a mystical way. However, I believe that this sort of interpretation is a misunderstanding based merely on a superficial reaction to the term. When one carefully examines the notion of “acting intuition” as it is developed in the context of Nishida’s thought, it becomes apparent that this notion contains nothing mystical; in fact, it is thoroughly connected to the historicity of human beings. <br> Moreover, not only is historicity implied in the notion of “acting intuition” itself, it is in fact this very notion that provides Nishida with a perspective from which to reveal the historicity involved in several problems of philosophy that have often been treated merely ahistorically by philosophers. These include the problem of knowledge, the problem of life, and the problem of religion. In his later texts Nishida discusses these problems from the viewpoint of “acting intuition,” and he is thereby able to treat them in such a manner as to show their intimate connection with the historicity of human beings.

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