"It is in emptiness that things live, resting on their originary foundation":selfhood, emptiness, and nothingness in Nishida and Hegel

Abstract

This paper, in the form of a theoretical essay, investigates the notions of selfhood, emptiness, and nothingness in Nishida and Hegel, using the world as a backdrop. We first consider the world from its selfhood—the “self” of the world in Nishida's perception and the “appearance” in Hegel's view. Secondly, we discuss the determination of the world's self in relation to Dasein. Finally, in a third and final stage, we explore the definition of the determinacy of the world's self as pure emptiness, also in these two authors. Our results show that the world's self originates from its background because, as Keiji states in the work “La religión y la nada”—"things only rest uninterruptedly in their most original possible foundation."