The standpoint and logic of pure experience in conformity with the composition of “an inquiry into the good”

“An Inquiry into the Good” considers reality as experience, and clarifies what occurs there. When reality is seen as experience, both the interpretation that reality exists first and we experience it as it is, and the interpretation that experience exists first and that experience is reality, have to be deliberately rejected. Clarification requires both a standpoint and logic. This standpoint should be intuition on the largest and deepest scale which enables the total perception from within that “reality = experience”. Forming this standpoint demands the surrender of a differentiate mind which raises issues whether they be internal or external, big or small, deep or shallow. Nishida designed “An Inquiry into the Good” to be read twice. On the first reading, the first chapter should be skipped because it ought to be read from the standpoint of pure experience, the formation of which is the process described from chapter two onwards. This process, by which an individual full of discrimination can be set free from prejudice, is the process of denial. This enables the individual to learn the standpoint and logic of pure experience for himself. At the same time, it is the process by which the legitimacy of the standpoint and logic of pure experience is proven and established. The second reading should be started from the first chapter and is a process of affirmation having arrived at the standpoint of pure experience and having gained an understanding of pure experience as being self-developing. The first reading therefore becomes an introduction to the standpoint of pure experience. By contrast, the second reading develops the essential depiction in “An Inquiry into the Good” that reality is experience and clarifies what occurs there.