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Jacynthe Tremblay

Jacynthe Tremblay is affiliated with Nanzan University in Nagoya and is a recognized specialist in the philosophy of Nishida Kitarō (1870-1945). She has translated into French six of Nishida’s major books, written between 1927 and 1935. In addition, she is the author of nine books that present Nishida’s philosophy in a rigorous and detailed manner. Three of these are literary works (one in the form of a philosophical autobiography, and two structured as dialogues) designed to make Nishida’s philosophy more accessible to a general readership.

Jacynthe Tremblay

Logic and Schematism in Nishida Kitarō

In the series of « Schematic Explanations”, written between 1934 and 1939, Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945) employed a wide range of logical and mathematical symbols and formulas to clarify the epistemological structure of his philosophy. Through this approach, he successfully demonstrated the complementarity between contrary concepts such as space and time, object and subject, as well as body and consciousness. For example, the formula M, i.e. A≡E signifies that the medium M (typically referring to the historical or dialectical world) consists of the concomitance (soku 即, ≡) of the domain of the object A (Allgemeines) and the domain of the subject E (Einzelnes) within the historical world M. In a strictly symmetrical manner, the formula m, i.e. a≡e expresses that the individual self, as a dialectical thing m, consists of the concomitance (soku 即, ≡) of a body a (as an element of the set A) and a consciousness e (as an element of the set E). To highlight the effectiveness of Nishida’s schematism, this presentation aims to establish a “grammar” of these symbols and formulas. In this endeavor, I will draw inspiration from the philosopher and mathematician Sueki Takehiro (1921–2007), one the most prominent interpreters of Nishida’s philosophy. I will categorize these symbols and formulas, compare them, and identify recurring patterns that will allow us to understand Nishida’s language and logic more deeply.

©2025 by The XI International Conference of Eastern Philosophy at Unicamp

Brazil-China Study Group

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