The 5th Conference of the International Association for Japanese Philosophy “95 Years after the Birth of Nishida Philosophy-‘Basho’ as Symbiosis of Non-Human and Human”

Special Panel Comments Mayuko Uehara, Andrew Feenberg, Murata Junichi, Yoko Arisaka, Inutsuka Yū

It was in 1926 that Nishida Kitarō (1870-1945) formulated the logic of ‘basho’ (place) and published an essay on it. The theme of the 2021 5th Conference of the International Association for Japanese Philosophy (IAJP) will be on Nishida philosophy after 95 years of its birth. Nishida philosophy as a logic of ‘basho’ developed from previous stages of his thinking centered around the concepts of ‘pure experience’ (junsui keiken) and ‘self-awakening’ (jikaku). With the establishment of this logical structure, Nishida developed the logic of ‘basho’ further as a logic of human society and the historical world. We find, with this thematic deepening of Nishida Philosophy, one after another, issues to be probed, such as ‘the relationality of self and other’, ‘life’, ‘body and action’, ‘technology’, ‘art’, ‘human being,’ ‘religion’, etc. Currently at this moment, in the year 2020, the world is being visited by a pandemic and our daily life is no longer as it was. We are thus pressed to revolutionize our view of the world or, to put it differently, we are urged to reconsider the relationship of our social distance with family, friends, colleagues, and others with whom we live, work, and create. Moreover, we are also necessitated to find ways to live symbiotically not only with human beings, but with “non-humans,” organic and inorganic, including viruses. 95 years after the birth of Nishida philosophy, do we have the need now to reconsider the concept of ‘basho’? Do we have the need now to seriously investigate and possibly incorporate the significance of the biologically “non-human” even if this topic was rather thin in Nishida’s own philosophy? The organizers of the 5th Conference of the IAJP would like to invite you to think together with us about “‘basho’ as symbiosis of non-human and human” before and after the pandemic at Nanzen-ji temple in Kyoto.

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