Author | Kitaro Nishida |
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Original title | Zen no kenkyū |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Subject | Ethics |
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ISBN | 978-0300052336 |
An Inquiry into the Good, also known as A Study of Good, (Japanese: 善の研究) is the first book by the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō, published in 1911.
As he explains in the Preface to the work, Parts II and III were composed first, followed by Parts I and IV. Part I is an explication of the nature of what he calls ‘pure experience’ which lies at the basis of his thought. Part II is the expression of his philosophical thought and is the core part of this book. Then, with the foundation being thus laid, Nishida launches into a discussion of the good in Part III. He appended Part IV out of his belief that the end of philosophy is religion. The reason that he entitled this work An Inquiry into the Good, despite half of it being devoted to the discussion of technical points in philosophy, is because he thought that, ultimately, the central focus of this work is the great questions of human life and existence.[1]
Graham Parkes described An Inquiry into the Good as a "masterpiece". He wrote that was made possible by the Japanese interest in western philosophy that began with the Meiji Restoration of 1868. He considered the book "path-breaking" and identified it as Nishida's best-known accomplishment.[2]
The religious studies scholar Ninian Smart stated that An Inquiry into the Good "struck many readers as the first truly creative work by a Japanese that did not merely repeat western ideas, and yet made use of modern thinking and terminology." However, he added that the work was criticized by the philosopher Takahashi Satomi, who found the subjectivism of "pure experience" too psychological.[3]