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Nihility and Emptiness

[虚無と空 (1–5)]

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Abstract

In contemporary nihilism the nihility stretches, so to speak, into the site of God’s being, and in this way becomes an abyss. And upon this godless nihility that has become an abyss, all life, not only biological life and souls, but even spiritual and personal life, manifests the form of something fundamentally meaningless. At the same time, it is furthermore claimed that human beings can only truly become free and independent and become true subjects when they resolutely ground themselves upon this abyssal nihility.

Translated from the Japanese by Robert Chapeskie and revised by John W. M. Krummel.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “indifferent” is written in English in the original text (translator).

  2. 2.

    Here Nishitani uses 虚無主義, the standard Japanese translation of “nihilism”, while in the following sentence he uses ニヒリズム, a phonetic transcription of the English word “nihilism” (translator).

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Nishitani, K. (2018). Nihility and Emptiness. In: Fujita, M. (eds) The Philosophy of the Kyoto School. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8983-1_15

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