Awakened Realism: Insights from Japanese Philosophy

This talk was given by Yuko Ishihara of YHouse at the Rubin Museum on December 2, 2016. In the mesmerizing experience of the moon, glimmering so impressively in the dark sky, is there a self? Am I there in such experience prior to reflection and thoughts about the moon? Most of the Western philosophical tradition has contended that I am there however implicit it may be. Nishida Kitaro, the most influential Japanese philosopher of the last century, has argued otherwise. In the moment of that experience, there is not yet subject or object, I or moon. There is absolutely no-thing but the beauty of the “moon” actualizing itself through “me.” Join philosopher Yuko Ishihara (Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen) as she elaborates on how Nishida points to the very ground of our experience whereby we awaken to the most direct encounter with reality.