Migration of people and texts, shaping and transiting ideas: a philosophical case study about Nakajima Rikizo's (1858-1918), 'Kant's Doctrine of the 'thing-in-itself'' (1889)

Abstract

In line with the conference’s general theme, this presentation seeks to introduce an approach for examining the interrelation between individual agents and the creation and circulation of knowledge between Japan and Western contexts during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More specifically, it aims to contribute to the study of influences and counterinfluences by tracing the trajectory of a core philosophical concept—the Kantian “thing-in-itself”—taking as its point of departure Nakajima Rikizō’s (1858–1918) PhD dissertation, Kant’s Doctrine of the “Thing-in-Itself” (1889).