This philosophical perspective, often associated with Kitarō Nishida and the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy, defines ethics through the concept of basho (場所), or "place."

🗺️ The Logic of Basho

Basho is a central metaphysical concept for Nishida, going beyond a mere physical location. It is best understood as a field or to-pos—the ultimate "place of absolute nothingness" (zettai mu no basho)—out of which all reality, including the self and its experiences, emerges.

• Self as a Node: The idea that "humans are not outside nature but self-aware nodes of its unfolding" positions the self not as a separate, observing subject, but as a focal point (a determinate) arising within the undifferentiated, creative ground of basho. The self is a self-determination of the universal, a moment of nature's process becoming reflectively aware of itself.

• Non-Dualism: This perspective overcomes the traditional Western dualism of subject and object, or self and nature. The self is not opposed to the world but is fundamentally interconnected with it, arising from the same field of absolute nothingness.

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⚖️ Ethics and Intertwined Opposition

The ethical dimension stems from this non-dualistic reality. Since the self and world are differentiations of the same ground (basho), all existence is characterized by a "dialectic of place."

• Intertwined Opposition and Alignment: The statement that "Opposition and alignment are intertwined" refers to the self-contradictory identity at the core of reality in Nishida's logic. Things (particulars/determinations) achieve their identity through their opposition to one another, but this opposition is only possible because they are all grounded in the same universal basho (alignment).

• Ethical Life: Ethical action is not about following an external rule or moral law, but about realizing this fundamental, non-dualistic unity and acting from the "true self"—the self that has emptied itself of its relative, ego-based determinations and acts as a vessel for the unfolding of the universal will or reality (basho). This is often viewed as a move "from acting to seeing"—acting intuitively and expressively from the unified field, rather than acting analytically from a separate, reflective subject.

This concept grounds an ethical life in immediacy, intuition, and a deep, active relationality with the whole of nature, seeing the self's well-being as inseparable from the well-being of the totality it is a part of.

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You may be interested in a brief video that introduces the fundamentals of this unique school of Japanese philosophy.

Check out this video on The Kyoto School of Philosophy: An Introduction. This video provides an introduction to the Kyoto School of Philosophy, which Kitarō Nishida founded and whose core concept is the philosophy of basho.