  Then, later in his career, Nishida paradoxically formed concepts of the limits of such knowledge and formulated his philosophy of absolute nothingness that is ultimately mirrored in self-awareness. Such awareness became a task for philosophy or, more specifically, for the philosopher. Throughout his life Nishida’s own practice of philosophy attempted to realize an abiding insight expressed in the various terms he recounts in the Preface cited above.  In that sense his thought is systematic, while not forming a closed system. It is a consistent attempt to re-conceptualize philosophy, to reframe the terms in which many philosophers think about self and world. This is, in part,  what is meant by saying that Nishida would have us think from the perspective of the world rather than the “I.”