The Work of Art for Nishida Kitarō and Alva Noë

What characterises art? Is it an object, a practice, an activity, an expression, an experience—or something entirely different? One way to answer is by looking at what art does rather than what it is—at the work art itself achieves. This paper places Nishida Kitarō in dialogue with Alva Noë, showing how both view art as something that actively works in and with the world. For Nishida, art exemplifies kōiteki chokkan , enacted by the interplay of action, intuition, and world. For Noë, art is an activity that offers new ways to organise life. Building on John C. Maraldo’s enactivist reading of kōiteki chokkan , this paper argues that Nishida and Noë share an implicitly enactivist view of art, where artistic actions and intuitions both shape and get shaped by the world. While they differ on the artist’s role, their perspectives together offer a more robust enactivist theory of art.