- Basho(the key concept being discussed)
- A Japanese term meaning 'place' that Nishida used to describe a kind of underlying reality or context in which all things exist and relate to each other.
- Conflation(as the logical error the Tiantai argument makes)
- Mistakenly treating two different things as if they were the same thing.
- Epistemic
- "Epistemic" relates to knowledge—how we know things, what counts as knowledge, and whether we can trust what we believe to be true. It comes from the Greek word for knowledge and is used to describe questions about the reliability and validity of our beliefs and understanding. For example, "epistemic humility" means acknowledging the limits of what you can actually know for certain.
- Formal conditions of experience(what the critic says Nishida incorrectly treats as real)
- The basic structures or rules that shape how we perceive and understand the world (like space, time, and categories of thought), as opposed to the actual content of what we experience.
- Metaphysical constituents of reality(what Nishida is wrongly accused of claiming)
- The fundamental building blocks or substances that make up what actually exists in the world, separate from just how we happen to think about it.
- Nishida(mentioned as part of a philosophical lineage following Hegel)
- A Japanese philosopher (1870-1945) who blended Western philosophy with Buddhist and Japanese thought, exploring how opposites like self and world can be connected rather than completely separate.
- Ontological
- "Ontological" refers to questions about what actually exists or is real. It's concerned with the fundamental nature of being—asking "What kinds of things are there?" rather than "How do we know about them?" For example, an ontological question might be whether numbers, ideas, or God actually exist as real things, or if they're just human inventions.
- Paralogism(as used in logic and philosophy)
- A logical error or faulty argument—specifically, reasoning that seems valid but actually breaks the rules of logic.