Nishida Kitarō and The Problem of Self-Consciousness

Abstract

Nishida Kitarō’s theory of self-consciousness develops a trans-intentional theory of self-consciousness–what he calls “pure experience.” Given that intentionality is not constitutive of self-consciousness in its most fundamental form, how is intentionality possible? In what follows we show how Nishida can explain the intentional relationship of consciousness to its object by a logic of a paradox, a logic that is deeply inspired by Hegel’s dialectical universal.