Kitaro Nishida's Philosophy of Science

20世纪30年代中期，西田北太郎认真地进入了科学哲学领域。在这一时期，西田试图从历史世界的身体实践的角度，将科学知识建立在他最初的“行动-直觉”和“历史身体”的概念上。这一尝试可以说是西田对“科学危机”争论的回应。审视20世纪关于数学基础的争论，西田拒绝接受罗素的“逻辑主义”立场，理由是它对直觉的作用缺乏洞察力。另一方面，Nidhida在一定程度上评价了布劳威尔的“直觉主义”。但他建议用他的“表演-直觉”概念代替布劳威尔的“基本直觉”。总的来说，西田并不一定成功地将“行为-直觉”应用于数学知识。因为“行动-直觉”本来是一个依赖于我们的身体行为的实用概念，相反，“上升-直觉”的概念在物理学领域中起着适当的作用。因为，物理学是一门通过实验操作来研究物体结构的学科。西田以布里奇曼的“操作主义”为基础，坚持“没有肉体自我的实际行为就没有物理世界”，从这个角度阐明了量子力学的认识论意义。最终，西田达到了“激进实证主义”的立场，用一个术语“现象=现实”来表示。从这一点开始，我们可以对西田的科学哲学进行更详细的考察。

In the middle of 1930's, Kitaro Nishida stepped into the field of philosophy of science in earnest. In this period, Nishida tried to ground scientific knowledge on his original concept of "acting-intuition" and "historical body" from the viewpoint of bodily practice in the historical world. This attempt was, as it were, Nishida's response to the controversy about "the crisis of science."Surveying the controversy about foundations of mathematics in the twentieth century, Nishida rejected Russell's position of "logicism, " on the grounds that it was lacking in insights into the role of intuition. On the other hand, Nidhida evaluated Brouwer's "intuitionism" to a certain extent. But he suggested to substitute his concept of "acting-intuition" for Brouwer's "basic intuition." Generally speaking, Nishida did not necessarily succeed in applying "acting-intuition" to mathematical knowledge. For "acting-intuition" is originally a practical concept which depends on our bodily acts.On the contrary, the concept of "ascting-intuition" properly functions in the field of physics. Because, physics is a discipline which investigates a structure of objects by means of experimental operations. Based upon Bridgman's "operationalism", Nishida insisted that "there is not a physical world without practical acts of bodily selves. "He elucidated the epistemological significance of quantum mechanics from this viewpoit. Finally, Nishida reached the position of "radical positivism" which was expressed by a term "phenomenon=reality." From this point we might go on to an even more detailed examination of Nishida's philosophy of science.