Abstract

It is obvious that in my experience, I cannot leave my own experience. Given that, how can I know that there are other perspectives than mine? In the present paper, I first approach this problem from the standpoint of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. Husserl seems to answer the question by his reflection on the “primal I”. I will analyze this strange but thought-provoking concept by interpreting it as a kind of “non-contextual self.” Second, I will compare the result of this consideration with the concept of “pure experience” and “basho” proposed by Kitaro Nishida. I try to show that these seemingly bizarre ideas of non-individual self might be necessary for our understanding of self and others. Individuals can only appear in a certain context, whereas there is a sort of experience that does not fit in any context.