Basic Information

Faculty

• Faculty of Letters
• Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS)

Email Address

• Email Address

  cerda.philip.7ikyoto-u.ac.jp

Academic Degree

• 23 Mar. 2021

  京都大学修士（人間・環境学）
• 25 Mar. 2024

  京都大学博士（人間・環境学）

Academic Resume (Undergraduate School/Majors)

• College of the Canyons, Biology, 退学
• University of California at Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, Molecular and Environmental Biology（３年次編入）, 卒業
• University of California at Berkeley, College of Letters and Science, Philosophy（３年次編入）, 卒業

Research History

• From Apr. 2025, To Present

  Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters, Program-Specific Assistant Professor

ID,URL

• J-Global ID

  202301013527506096

researchmap URL

• https://researchmap.jp/spkcerda

Research

Research Interests

• Modernity
• Normativity
• Subjectivity
• The Kyoto School
• German Idealism
• Nishitani Keiji
• Tanabe Hajime
• Nishida Kitarō
• Hegel

Research Areas

• Humanities & social sciences, Philosophy and ethics

Papers

• 'An Inquiry into the Good' as Post-Kantian Metaphysics

  Cerda, Sova P. K.

  Annual Report of the Nishida Philosophy Association, Jul. 2025, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

  
• On the Use and Abuse of Hegel for Life: A Study in Nishitani Keiji's Early Thought (1924-1936)

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Dec. 2024, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

  
• Why the Absolute Matters as Idealism like Never Before: Nishitani, Hegel’s Logic, and Freedom in the Modern World

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Nov. 2023, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

  
• Nishitani Keiji’s “Prajña and Reason” [Excerpt]

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  The Journal of East Asian Philosophy, 27 Oct. 2023, Peer-reviewed

  
• The Aesthetic 'A Priori': Nishitani Keiji and the Normativity of Pure Experience

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  The Annual Report of the Nishida Philosophy Association, Jul. 2023, Peer-reviewed

  

Misc.

• [Translation] Tanabe Hajime: "The Logic of Social-Being: An Essay in Philosophical Sociology (§1–4)"

  Urai Satoshi; Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Nov. 2025, Peer-reviewed

  
• Review of 'Intercultural Phenomenology: Playing with Reality,' by Yuko Ishihara and Steven A. Tainer

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, 2025, Lead author

  
• Review of 'Engaging Japanese Philosophy: A Short History,' by Thomas P. Kasulis

  Cerda, Sova P. K.

  Philosophy Today, Aug. 2025, Lead author

  
• Nishida's Auseinandersetzung with Hegel

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  西田哲学会会報, Oct. 2024, Invited, Lead author

  
• Dialectic as Love at Work: Modernity and Evil in Nishitani Keiji's Early Thought

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Gegenwart und Aussicht der Philosophie des Nichts/Leeren, May 2024, Invited, Corresponding author

  
• The Fifth Decade of Religion and Nothingness: Introduction to the Special Issue

  Sova P. K. Cerda; Tobias Bartneck

  The Journal of East Asian Philosophy, 08 Apr. 2024, Lead author, Corresponding author

  
• [Translation] Tanabe Hajime: "Clarifying the Meaning of the Logic of Species"

  Urai Satoshi; Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Nov. 2023, Peer-reviewed

  
• Dialectic as Love at Work: Modernity and Evil in Nishitani Keiji's Early Thought

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Zivilisation und Philosophie, 2023

  
• [Translation] Tanabe Hajime: "The Third Stage of Ontology"

  Urai Satoshi; Sova P. K. Cerda

  European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, Oct. 2022, Peer-reviewed

  
• [Translation] Yoshiomi Tanabe: "Heidegger on Race: The Rectorate Years"

  Annual Review of the Phenomenological Association of Japan, 2020

  

Presentations

• Book Session: The History of Modern Japanese Philosophy

  Ishihara Yūko; Sova P.K. Cerda; Fujita Masakatsu

  Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle 19th Annual Meeting, 30 May 2026, Invited

  
• Tanabe Hajime, the Anti-Cartesian Hegel, and the Question of Philosophical Modernism

  Cerda, Sova P. K.

  Workshop on Tanabe Hajime and His Relation to Nishida Kitarō, 23 Jan. 2026, Invited

  
• Watsuji Today: Critical Interventions on Fūdo, Aidagara, and Environmental Ethics

  Laÿna Droz; Sova P. K. Cerda; Hans Peter Liederbach

  9th ENOJP Conference, 05 Sep. 2025

  
• Translating Nishida Kitarō's 'Zettai Mujunteki Jikodōitsu': A Book Talk

  Enrico Fongaro; Steve G. Lofts; Sova P. K. Cerda; Felipe Cuervo Restrepo; Felipe Ferrari Gonçalves

  9th ENOJP Conference, 04 Sep. 2025

  
• Nishida's 'Inquiry into the Good,' Kant' Three Critiques, and Two Conceptions of Experiences

  CERDA, Sova P. K.

  23rd Annual Conference of the Nishida Philosophy Association, 26 Jul. 2025

  
• Nishitani Keiji's Basic Insight: Apperception and the Power of Imagination

  Cerda, Sova P. K.

  NIRC Workshop on Kant, Neo-Kantianism, and Japanese Philosophy, 06 Jul. 2025, Invited

  
• What is Absolute Contradictory Self-Identity? Nishida, Hegel, and Ontological Truth

  Cerda, Sova P.K.

  14th Nishida Seminar (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture), 28 Mar. 2025, Invited

  
• Homesickness, Heidegger, and the Kyoto School

  Cerda, Sova P. K.

  Japanese Philosophy and its Auseinandersetzung with Heidegger, 07 Mar. 2025, Invited

  
• Setting Thought in Motion: Dialectic in the Kyoto School

  Hans Peter Liederbach; Sova P. K. Cerda

  7th Annual International Association for Japanese Philosophy Conference, 06 Aug. 2024

  
• An Inquiry into the Good as Post-Kantian Metaphysics

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  西田哲学会第２２回年次大会, 27 Jul. 2024

  
• Philosophizing After Hegel: Freedom, Logic, and Life in the Tanabe-Nishitani Exchange (1935-1938)

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nishitani Keiji Workshop on the Philosophy of Religion, 10 May 2024, Invited

  
• From the Realm of Shadows to the Theater of History: Nishitani Keiji on the Use of Hegel's Phenomenology for Life

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  7th Annual Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, 08 Sep. 2023

  
• Play in Early Nishitani

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  6th Conference of the International Association for Japanese Philosophy, 16 Aug. 2023

  
• Translating Fūdo

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Workshop on Watsuji 2023, 05 Aug. 2023, Invited

  
• Contextualizing Nishitani's Critique of Nishida

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  21st Annual Conference of the Nishida Philosophy Association, 22 Jul. 2023

  
• What Life Demands: Attitudes and Experience in Nishitani Keiji's "Mysticism" (1956)

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nishitani Keiji Workshop on the Philosophy of Religion, 11 May 2023, Invited

  
• Modernity and Evil in Nishitani Keiji's Early Work

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Nishida Philosophy Association & Japanisch-Deutsches Kultur-Institut, Nishida-Nishitani Workshop, 23 Oct. 2022, Invited

  
• The Conceptual and Normative Structure of Activity: Considering Nishitani's Readings of Nishida and Aristotle

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  20th Annual Conference of the Nishida Philosophy Association, 24 Jul. 2022

  
• "We, in the beginning of life, must stand under this promise": Cajolery as an Ontological Problem

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Readings of Nishida's "Absolute Contradictory Self-Identity", 25 Jun. 2022, Invited

  
• Nishitani, Existence, and Dialectic

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  6th Annual Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, 04 Feb. 2022

  
• Nishitani's "Anti-Cartesianism"

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  International Society of East Asian Philosophy Conference, 10 Dec. 2021

  
• Nishitani on Familial Breakdowns: Interpersonal Demands and the Unity of the Self

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  16th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, 25 Aug. 2021

  
• Demythologizing Topology: Nishitani, Kant, and the "Standpoint" of the Subject

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  5th Conference of the International Association for Japanese Philosophy, 14 Mar. 2021

  
• Why Are the Tears Under the Moon So Many? Nishitani, Rosen, and the Diagnostic Problem of Nihilism

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  4th Conference of the International Association for Japanese Philosophy, 13 Oct. 2019

  
• Domestic Horror and the Unity of the Self

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  Kyoto University Intercultural Philosophy Workshop, 05 Oct. 2019, Invited

  
• Nishitani Keiji and the Good Life

  Sova P. K. Cerda

  5th Annual Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, 01 Sep. 2019

  

Books and Other Publications

• Revitalizing Tanabe Philosophy: Essays Commemorating the 140th Anniversary of Tanabe Hajime's Birth

  CERDA, Sova P. K., Joint work, "Crisis and Freedom in Tanabe Hajime and Nishitani Keiji: Reconstructing the Philosophical Confrontation from the Hatano Festschrift" (pp. 226–44); "A Slice in the History of Japan's Hegel Reception as Seen from Tanabe Hajime's Letters to Tanigawa Tetsuzō: The Evaluation of Kōyama Iwao" (pp. 307–14)

  Hōsei University Press, Dec. 2025

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Zettai Mujunteki Jikodōitsu

  Steve G. Lofts; Sova P. K. Cerda, Joint translation, 95–134, Nishida Kitarō

  Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Sep. 2025

  
• Nishitani Keiji: Essays and Reflections II

  Sova P. K. Cerda; James W. Heisig, Joint editor

  Nagoya: Chisokudō Publications, 2024

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Nishitani Keiji: Essays and Reflections I

  Sova P. K. Cerda; James W. Heisig, Joint editor

  Nagoya: Chisokudō Publications, 2024

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Eckhart, Heidegger, and the Imperative of Releasement

  Ian Alexander Moore, author, Joint translation, [Translation] Nishitani Keiji: "Nietzsche's Zarathustra and Meister Eckhart" (pp. 195-218)

  State University of New York Press, 2019

  

External funds: Kakenhi

• The Possibility of Meaning in Modern Existence: A Common Task Between Nishitani Keiji and Recent Post-Hegelian Thought

  Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists

  Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related

  Kyoto University

  CERDA Sova・P.K.

  From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2029, Granted

  実存哲学;西谷啓治;意味論;モダニティ論;ヘーゲル

  https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-25K16055/
• 京都学派における論理の総合的研究と国際的研究基盤の構築

  Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

  Basic Section 01040:History of thought-related

  Kyoto University

  浦井 聡

  From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2030, Granted

  京都学派;論理;西田幾多郎;田辺元;西谷啓治

  https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-25K00402/

Education

Teaching subject(s)

• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  Philosophy of Nature I-E2

  H163, Spring, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  Japanese Philosophy II-E2

  H162, Fall, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  Japanese Philosophy I-E2

  H161, Spring, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  Philosophy of Nature II-E2

  H164, Fall, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  Integrated Liberal Arts and Science with Small Group Seminar s (Humanities and Social Sciences p2)

  H754, Spring, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 4
• From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026

  Philosophy of Nature II-E2

  H164, Fall, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026

  Philosophy of Nature I-E2

  H163, Spring, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026

  Japanese Philosophy II-E2

  H162, Fall, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026

  Japanese Philosophy I-E2

  H161, Spring, Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2

Part-time lecturer

• From 01 Apr. 2026, To 31 Mar. 2027

  （春学期）文化解釈学、（秋学期）比較文化学

  春学期、秋学期, 関西学院大学
• From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2026

  「文化解釈学」「比較文化学」

  関西学院大学

Academic, Social Contribution

Committee Memberships

• From Aug. 2025, To Present

  Editorial Committee, Journal of Japanese Philosophy

Social Contribution

• Sempai Talk Session

  Panelist

  European Network of Japanese Philosophy, The 2nd PhD Workshop of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, From 03 Sep. 2025

  
• [Café philosophique] UGOC Philosophy

  Host, Planner

  From 05 May 2020, To Present

  
• Philosophical Criticism and Autonomy

  Lecturer

  Kyoto University, Introduction to Human Sciences (Guest Lecturer), From 18 Nov. 2022

  
• Watsuji Tetsurō's Fūdo as an 'Approach to Heidegger from East Asian Thought'

  Lecturer

  University of California at Berkeley, Intersubjectivity, Communality & Responsibility (Guest Lecturer), From 09 Mar. 2021