Resumen de Why the Absolute Matters as Idealism like Never Before: Nishitani, Hegel’s Logic, and Freedom in the Modern World
Nishitani Keiji’s work has found itself at the center of intercultural debates over modernity, but what is modernity, such that it, as target of both criticism and aspiration, provides common ground in this dialogue? To investigate this, I relate Nishitani’s early thought to a recent controversy over "modern freedom” between Markus Gabriel’s New Realism and Robert B. Pippin’s Absolute Idealism, which stems from conflicting readings of Hegel’s Logic. I aim to show that Nishitani’s early reading of Hegel’s Logic makes a case for favoring Absolute Idealism. While Hegel’s “Idea” has often been understood as an object, Nishitani and Pippin show a way of considering it socio-historically. If the Idea of Absolute Idealism is that subjects are “given” only what they “take,” then while Logic might help secure selfawareness of this Idea, the freedom in which this self-awareness is realized historically, has neither its actuality guaranteed, nor its possibilities predefined.
