The Political Dangers of Nishida’s View of Embodiment

Nishida Kitarō’s view of embodiment is commonly re ad as an affirmation of life in a way that disrupts dualistic accounts of human reality. What is hidden from this reading, however, are the dangers and limitations resulting from Nishida’s failure to fully link the body to the role of political-economic institutions and movements within the creation of historical reality. By comparing Nishida’s view of embodiment with that of Miki Kiyoshi’s and Hiratsuka Raichō’s view, this article will discuss how Nishida’s philosophy was unable to get beyond viewing embodiment in terms of a culturally liberal subjectivity that can be active in its resistance to the structures of domination within a particular polity. The implication of this, as this article argues, presents a challenge for deploying Nishida’s view of embodiment for an ethics of care, particularly in terms of our understanding of how bodies become disadvantaged or privileged within networks of power.