Religion; Japan; Zen; Philosophy; Pantheism; Dilworth, David; Nishida, Kitaro; Zen no kenkyu
摘要
The article analyzes the religious language and ideas of nishida kitaro's first work，"zen no kenkyu". it demonstrates how this first work by the thinker who became japan's foremost modern philosopher and virtual pioneer of what has become a philosophy of religion movement in the 'kyoto school' began to articulate certain religious values from the point of view of his initial doctrine of 'pure experience' which he later developed into a buddhistic metaphysics of the 'topos' of 'absolute nothingness'. it shows how nishida's early religious categories were not yet free from the language of western mysticism and idealism. this article will be followed by another in the following issue of "philosophy east and west" which takes up the ensuing 'pantheistic voluntarism' of nishida's early career，prior to his break with western mystical and idealistic language in favor of purely buddhistic categories.
