Nishida Kitaro

With this volume, the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture launches a new book series, the Nanzan Library of Japanese Philosophy, as a venue for translations of Japanese philosophical works and essays on related topics. For decades, the Nanzan Institute has been the global leader for research and publications on Japanese philosophy. This inaugural publication of the series includes translations of Nishida Kitarō’s seminal work Zettai mujunteki jikodōitsu. Completed in 1939 at the peak of Nishida’s career as a philosopher, this work lays the foundation for his concept of “absolute contradictory self-identity,” which came to define the final period of his philosophical writings. By translating this notoriously complicated work into seven languages (French, English, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and German), this volume not only makes Nishida’s thoughts on self-identity accessible to an international readership but is also an experiment in the art of translation. We invite those interested in the philosophy of Nishida as well as the process of translation to explore how the translations in this volume, all produced by Nishida scholars, interpret the text.

Author Biography

This book is the first volume in the Nanzan Library of Japanese Philosophy. Digital versions of all publications are available at https: //nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/books.