L'ambiguità del mondo. La dialettica dell'interazione di Nishida Kitaro

The theme of dialectics has been very important in Modern Japan. In the later philosophy of Nishida Kitarō, dialectics is crucial for both the structure of his philosophy and its relationship with Buddhism, since according to him it would help to define important and desirable features of Buddhist thought. Hence, a discussion on this aspect may prove to be decisive in order to understand the overall meaning of Nishida’s thought. This essay aims at discussing the meaning and the implications of dialectics in Nishida, from the perspective of the philosophical theme of the world’s fundamental ambiguity and its linguistic consequences. Contrary to the political nature of Aristotle’s idea of the principle of non-contradiction, Nishida aims at a contemplative approach to the ambiguous world, however falling short of facing the problem of modernity, thus being unable to connect the world’s ambiguity with its negative sides. From such a perspective, his philosophy appears to be inclined to metaphysics more than to practical and transformative attitude.