Nishida Kitarō, Dialectics, and a 2010 Mozambican Food Riot

Abstract

Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945), a prominent Japanese philosopher linked to the Kyoto School, produced a massive body of scholarship whose themes and ideas were shaped by a broad stream of cultural-intellectual influences from Aristotle to Nāgārjuna to Hegel and Marx. Prior to the publication of five essays in two volumes in 2012, a limited sample of his work was available in English. While Nishida's life works were quite eclectic and wide-ranging, these recently translated essays give particular attention to his conceptual understanding of dialectics, the individual, society, and social transformation. Working with these essays, our aim is to demonstrate the rich potential for adapting elements of Nishida's dialectical-conceptual analysis of society and social transformation for the analysis of North-South relationships in general and the roles of individuals across the global South as local agents of social transformation in particular. To this end, we first examine several key concepts driving Nishida's analysis before applying these to our consideration of a 2010 Mozambican food riot.

Keywords:

• Nishida Kitarō
• dialectics
• North-South relationships
• food riots
• Mozambique

Notes on Contributor

David Baronov is Professor of sociology at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY (USA). His research centers on the dynamics of global/local linkages as a feature of world-historical capitalism, with particular interest in the role of local agency as both a response to and a further development of global capitalist structures and processes. In addition to Nishida, this research is much informed by the work of Hegel, Marx, Fernand Braudel, and Immanuel Wallerstein. Baronov's publications include The Dialectics of Inquiry across the Historical Social Sciences (Routledge, 2014) and The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchange (Temple University Press, 2008).

Notes

¹Mere theoretical assertion implies that a claim of local agency vis-à-vis a social structure is partial or insufficient insofar as it does not provide explicit ontological criteria but instead relies upon a theoretical-axiomatic schema—however imaginative—that precedes and is imposed upon, rather than grounded in, local conditions. The work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser, Franz Fanon, E. P. Thompson, Ranajit Guha, Karel Kosík, among others, are divergent examples of efforts to address this.

²These essays, published between 1925 and 1938, include “Expressive Activity,” “Human Being,” “Logic and Life,” and “The Standpoint of Active Intuition.” See Nishida ([1925] 2012, [1935] 2012, [1936] 2012, [1938] 2012).

³See Haver (2012) and Krummel (2012) for analyses that place these essays in the context of Nishida's larger body of work.

⁴For the uninitiated, Ueda's brief essay on reading Nishida (Ueda 1995) provides a constructive starting point.

⁵See Krummel (2012) and Wilkinson (2009) for further treatments of Nishida's notion of the continuity of discontinuity.

⁶See Cestari (1998), Haver (2012), Krummel (2012), and Wilkinson (2009) for further treatments of Nishida's notion of active intuition.

⁷See Haver (2012), Jacinto Zavala (1994), Lutz Müller (2013), and Wilkinson (2009), for further treatments of Nishida's notion of absolute contradictory self-identity.

⁸Varying treatments of multiple, interactive levels are, of course, common for many historical analyses of revolts and revolutions. This includes the work of Braudel, Lefebvre, Mao, and C. L. R. James among others. Again, the missing (or insufficient) link in such accounts are the ontological premises—such as active intuition—that provide the rationale for the linkages across these levels beyond theoretical assertion.

⁹See Haver (2012), Jacinto Zavala (1989), and Krummel (2012) for further treatments of Nishida's notion of from the made to the making.

¹⁰See Baronov (2014) for a fuller treatment of the New York City Draft Riots from this perspective.

¹¹Sources for this account include Diario de Noticias (Lisbon), The Mozambique News Agency (a government organ), The Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), BBC News, Radio France International, The Guardian (London), The Economist, The New York Times, and The Independent (London).

¹²See “Police Deny Use of Army to Restore Order,” The Mozambican News Agency, Sept. 2, 2010.

¹³See “Seven Killed as Rising Food Prices Spark Riots in Mozambique,” The Independent, Sept. 4, 2010.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵See “Children Shot Dead in Mozambique Riots”, Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg). Sept. 1, 2010.

¹⁶See “As pessoas não têm dinheiro para comer” [People do not have money to buy food], Diario de Noticias, Sept. 4, 2010.

¹⁷See “Protestos populares geraram o caos em Maputo” [Protests creating chaos in Maputo], Diario de Noticias, Sept. 2, 2010.

¹⁸See “Uma capital africana paralisada pelos manifestantes sem rosto” [An African capital paralyzed by faceless protestors], Diario de Noticias, Sept. 2, 2010.

¹⁹See “Moçambique/confrontos: Aumentos de preços obedecem a compromissos com IMF” [Mozambique conflict: Price increases in accord with promises to IMF], Diario de Noticias, Sept. 4, 2010.

²⁰See “Mozambican Food Riots—The True Face of Global Warming,” The Guardian, Sept. 2, 2010.

²¹See “Wheat Sends Food Prices Up,” UN Food and Agricultural Organization, Sept. 1, 2010.