著者

佐々木 慎吾

出版者

西田哲学会

雑誌

西田哲学会年報 (ISSN:21881995)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.143-157, 2005 (Released:2021-01-16)

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Scince Nishida's thought is greatly affected by his practice of Zen Buddism, some people often regerd him as a speculative metaphysician. This way of looking contains some truth, but it fails the very important point to see. In this article insist that the essential intention of Nisida's philosophycal work is oriented toward the concrete reality of the world. By Nishida, the world of concrete reality is the historical-social world, in which we act, live and die. That's why the idea of life is frequently mentioned in his late works. Life represents the concretness of the world. Nishida argues that real social facts such as folks or nations must be treated as life. On the analogy of J. S. Haldane's physiology, Nishida insists that the species should be considered as self of the maintaining subject in the historical-social world. Being inspired by Haldane's holistic conception of life, Nishida conceptualizes the historical-social species, whose ideal form (paradeigma) is embodied in social acts. But there is a serious misunderstanding in Nishida's argument. Biologically, self-maintaining function cannot be found in species, but in a concrete, individual organism. My conclusion is that Nishida contradicts himself because of this inappropriate interpretation of Haldane's concept of life.