Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
Can the language of philosophy adequately articulate emptiness and nothingness? Rather, might poetry articulate that which conventional philosophical writing fails to achieve? Tasked with articulating the very nature of emptiness is Keiji Nishitani (Japanese philosopher and prominent scholar of the Kyoto School). In his seminal book entitled Religion and Nothingness, Nishitani discusses at length the standpoint of śūnyatā (otherwise known as emptiness). In many ways, Nishitani eloquently situates into dialogue both poetry and philosophy with the goal of unravelling a deeper understanding of the human condition. By employing poetry throughout his work, Nishitani capitalizes on the experiential and aesthetic contributions of poetry to more clearly and effectively articulate his philosophy: “the poet’s words can be the philosopher’s tools, codes and modes of reflection and judgement, of contemplation and enunciation” (Ranjan Ghosh, “The Agonizing Agon: Meditations on Conjugality”). From logos and the rationality of thought to experience and the aesthetics of feeling, this paper interrogates our conventional modes of philosophizing and considers more poetical means of apprehending our natures and emptiness at large. In short, this paper argues that the poetry employed by Nishitani throughout Religion and Nothingness serves as an aesthetic and experiential mode of communication to more clearly and effectively articulate his philosophical project of conveying the unconveyable, that is, the standpoint of śūnyatā (emptiness). By employing poetry, Nishitani does not undermine the philosophical nature of his project. Rather, poetry achieves the same ends as philosophy, only the modes in which they articulate meaning often differ.