On nihilism and emptiness – Nishitani and Heidegger

Abstract

Keiji Nishitani is one of the most important philosophers of the Kyoto School who devoted himself deeply to the subject of Nihilism. In my presentation, I discuss the development of the concept of "nihilism" by those two authors taking as a base Nishitani's interpretation of Heidegger in his book entitled "Nihilism". The concept of emptiness developed by Nishitani in his major work "What is religion" is the one that gets closest to that same concept developed by Mahayana Buddhism and that has not yet exhausted the possibilities of philosophical approaches. The thoughts expressed by Nishitani in his book and the debate with the Western philosophical tradition aim to overcome Nihilism as such. Key-words: nihilism, emptiness, Heidegger, Nishitani.