Ethics and Politics in the Early Nishida: Reconsidering Zen no kenkyu

The early Nishida has conventionally been seen as an apolitical thinker, concerned primarily with religious philosophy. In itself this constitutes a political reading of Nishida's work, since it represents an attempt to distance (and thus "save") his wider philosophy from his dubious political practice during the 1930s and 1940s. However, a fresh reading of Nishida's debut, Zen no kenkyu (An inquiry into the good), reveals a distinctive political agenda and a sophisticated philosophy of political ethics. Counterintuitively, this essay suggests that Nishida's politics, at least in his "early period," provides a sound philosophical basis for a critique of imperialism and ultranationalism.