A comparative analysis of Nishida and Sartre with special reference to their respective ontologies

This dissertation is a study in East-West comparative philosophy. It attempts for the first time to comparatively analyze the respective phenomenological ontologies of two noteworthy twentieth-century philosophers, namely Nishida Kitaro of Japan and Jean-Paul Sartre of France, and how they respond differently to the challenge of the German philosopher, Edmund Husserl. The major foci of the study are: (1) consciousness and the world, (2) pre-reflective and reflective consciousness, (3) self-consciousness and the nature of the self, (4) being and nothingness, and (5) theories of religious consciousness.

Certain remarkable similarities between Nishida and Sartre are discussed, such as the fact that both were passionately concerned with the problem of the relationship between consciousness and the world, and both were critically challenged by Husserl's contributions to the problem. It is also evident that both insisted on giving fundamental status to pre-reflective consciousness and self-consciousness in their respective theories of consciousness. They both also noted peculiar contradictions in what is known as the "self," and were critical of any attempts to regard the self as a substantial entity. These commonalities certainly justify such a comparative study, particularly since there is no recorded trace of influence, the one upon the other.

The dissertation shows that, while the two philosophers began their reflections from similar premises--albeit from very diverse backgrounds--ultimately they arrived at very different conclusions. This is especially noted in Nishida's departure from Sartre on the nature of religious consciousness. Whereas Sartre associates all religious experience with the human "desire to be God" (an impossible synthesis of "being-for-itself" and "being-in-itself"), Nishida identifies authentic religious consciousness with the "place of absolute nothingness," a curious difference when we consider the significance of nothingness in Sartre's philosophy. They are, then, led to radically distinct philosophies of religion, although starting with similar philosophical premises. vi