Au-delà de la vision dualiste de l’être et du néant

Abstract This paper explores the relationship between Aristotle’s Metaphysics and the Kyoto School of Japanese philosophy. Specifically, it focuses on the central role of the concept of nothingness in the work of Kitaro Nishida, the founding figure of the Kyoto School and its link to the notion of ousia prôtè . As I will demonstrate, the notion of nothingness in contrast to its more traditional nihilistic formulations plays an active and productive role, particularly regarding the nature of existence. Nishida’s dynamic nothingness in fact bears a remarkable affinity with the notion of ousia prôtè as developed in Aristotle’s Metaphysics as a perpetual act of determination. Through an extension of Annick Stevens and Annick Jaulin’s work and moving in concert with scholars such as Jacynthe Tremblay and Robert J.J Wargo, I will pursue a close reading of the decomposition of the negative spatiality of nothingness throughout the “determination without a determinant”, that is, the act of the ousia prôtè . I argue that it is only through a reconsideration of both being and nothingness that the central tenants of both thinkers can be fully understood and appreciated. Placing these two major thinkers of existence side by side thus offers a unique perspective from which to address their individual contributions to the idea of being and nothingness.