Absolute Self-Contradictory Human Existence: Nishida in Davos

Francesca Greco

6 Absolute Self-Contradictory Human Existence: Nishida in Davos

In: Kyoto in Davos. Intercultural Readings of the Cassirer-Heidegger Debate

Author:

Francesca Greco

Francesca Greco University of Hildesheim

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 189–213

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004680173_008

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to apply the philosophical approach of Nishida Kitarō’s work on human existence to a counterfactual Davos disputation. Because of his inclination to think relationality in a radical fashion by starting from the tensions inherent in the absolute self-contradictory nature of human beings, I argue that Nishida’s presence in Davos would have had a transformative effect. The famous 1929 dispute originated from the question “Was ist der Mensch?” Many commentators have emphasized how uncompromisingly antithetical the personalities as well as the philosophical views of the two speakers were. Against such dualistic polemics between monological views, my idea is to introduce Nishida as a third interlocutor and thereby to offer a tool to analyze the discussion between Cassirer and Heidegger. My analysis will be articulated on two levels: (1) a behavioral meta-level, in which the attitude and approach of the two disputants will be considered and (2) a thematic level, which will reflect upon the results of the first level by using a thematic key that traces the respective arguments each disputant gave about the question of the finitude and infinity of human knowledge. Finally, I will sketch some of the central concepts of Nishida’s thought, concepts which have guided his most important arguments, such as the self-contradictory tension between human existence and the modalities of its production. My aim when sketching these concepts is also to underscore how they relate to Cassirer’s and Heidegger’s respective thinking. After having seen, through Nishida’s eyes, how the form of this discussion affects both the topics and the presentation of the discussion itself, we are then in a position to ask, what are the most productive forms of discussion that we can possibly undertake for the sake of the flourishing of philosophical conversations in the context of academic philosophy?

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Kyoto in Davos. Intercultural Readings of the Cassirer-Heidegger Debate

Series: Studien zur interkulturellen Philosophie / Studies in Intercultural Philosophy / Études de philosophie interculturelle, Volume: 26

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004680173

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 22 Dec 2023

Subjects
- Asian Studies
  - Philosophy
- Philosophy
  - 19th & 20th Century Philosophy
  - Asian Philosophy

Front Matter

Part 1 Recontextualizing the Davos Debate

Part 2 Nishida Joining the Davos Debate

Part 3 German-Japanese Ramifications of the Davos Debate

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6 Absolute Self-Contradictory Human Existence: Nishida in Davos

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Kyoto in Davos. Intercultural Readings of the Cassirer-Heidegger Debate

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