William James and Kitaro Nishido: Pure Experience

I recently discovered this paper on the philosophical connections between William James and a

prominent Japanese author of the generation following his.

https://www.academia.edu/5767451/William_James_and_Kitaro_Nishida_on_Pure_Experience_Consciousness_and_Moral_Psychology?email_work_card=title

Posting it here is a good way to wish myself a happy new year. Nishida was a Japanese admirer of James

who was struck by how certain elements in Jamesian thought echoed Zen Buddhism.

Joel W. Krueger is -- or in 2007 was -- a student at Purdue who submitted this paper as his Ph.D.

dissertation.

Here's a quote from Krueger.

"Nishida shares James' concern for the phenomenological significance of pure experience. As we'll see,

his development of pure experience is in many ways quite similar to James. However, I submit that

Nishida refocuses James' project here in a crucial way when he strives to articulate pure experiences'

profound ethical significance."

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