Nishitani Keiji; Emptiness; Fundamental imagination; Imaging of emptiness
摘要
This paper explores Nishitani Keiji’s interpretation of emptiness found in his essay “Emptiness and Immediacy,” dating from the last period of his life. The paper first points out that Nishitani focused on the notion of emptiness in his Religion and Nothingness, his representative work from his middle years, in relation to the problem of nihilism. However, in “Emptiness and Immediacy,” Nishitani takes up the notion of emptiness in relation to human sentiment and the problem of imagination. He argues that emptiness is reflected in human sentiment in a process he terms the “imaging of emptiness.” The paper discusses this concept, as well as the related concepts of “making things transparent” and “fundamental imagination,” all of which are of central importance in Nishitani’s philosophy during his last years.
