The work of art for Nishida Kitarō and Alva Noë
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Date
2025
Authors
Walsh, David
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Project MUSE
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Abstract
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.
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Keywords
Alva Noë , Strange tools , Nishida Kitarō , Kōiteki Chokkan , Acting intuition , Philosophy of art , Enactivism , Enacted cognition , ~Philosophy - Journal Articles~
Citation
Walsh, D. (2025) 'The work of art for Nishida Kitarō and Alva Noë', Philosophy East and West, [advance online publication on Project MUSE]. https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2025.a958621
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© 2025, the Author.