This paper explores Erich Fromm’s contribution to Deweyan democratic education by referring to his psychoanalytic interpretation of John Dewey’s pragmatic theory. First, it employs the work by Gert Biesta to secure a space between critical pedagogy and Deweyan democratic education, from which Fromm’s theory can be discussed. Furthermore, it argues that Biesta’s perspective offers a valuable theoretical ground to extend the emancipatory potential of Deweyan democratic education, while avoiding some pitfalls of critical pedagogy. Subsequently, the paper contrasts Marcuse’s and Fromm’s (...) views on Dewey to show how Fromm’s understanding of Dewey was more effective than that of Marcuse for developing the potential of Dewey’s philosophy. Next, the paper clarifies key similarities and differences between Fromm’s psychoanalysis and Dewey’s pragmatism, as it is applicable specifically to emancipatory education. Finally, the paper argues that despite the differences between these two thinkers, Fromm’s theory further radicalizes Deweyan democratic education by adding new elements to the list of preconditions on the role of the emancipatory teacher. (shrink)

Context holds a significant place mediating the conceptual and the empirical in ethnography. This modality of knowledge has also become a significant part of science and technology studies since the rise of laboratory studies. However, conventional modes of contextualization that locate the object of study within a whole—such as within a society or culture—have become a target of suspicion and criticism since the 1980s. This led to the radical alteration of the contextualizing strategies of actor–network theory and multisited ethnography. Anthropologist (...) Marilyn Strathern is also responding to this crisis by renovating the practice of ethnography in a way significantly different from both strategies. Since contextualization occupies a significant place in the formation of ethnography as a representation of a larger “out there” reality, her alternative contextualization requires a new characterization of ethnography other than representation. This article tries to expound the complicated, and often perplexing, ethnography of Strathern by making an analogy with objects familiar to most science, technology, and society scholars, namely, machines. By doing so, this article argues that Strathern is opening up a new way of dealing with context that is radically different both from ANT and from multisited ethnography. (shrink)

錯綜する現代の教育状況に、どうアプローチすればよいのか。教育現実のもつ複雑さと重層性に迫るため、「思想史」という回路を通して現代教育の全体像を炙り出す。教育学を学ぶための教育思想史入門。.

In the second book of Soliloquia, Augustine queries: what is ‘true’ and what is ‘false’. Through the examination, Augustine (Ratio) expresses the idea that ‘true’ is that which exists. Therefore, whatever exists is true; nothing will be false. But then, what is ‘false’? This paper will first clarify that the examination of ‘false’ in Soliloquia relates to Augustine’s awareness of the problem of sin. Already in Soliloquia, Augustine finds that the soul can have in itself the cause of sin so (...) as to be unable to have the truth. Secondly, the author examines how the epistemology of falsehood is developed in the early Augustine by examining his articles after Soliloquia, focusing on the concept of lying in De Genesi contra Manichaeos and De vera religione. This will show that Augustine's understanding of falsehood and lying is related to his soteriology. Thirdly, the paper focuses on q. 63 of De diversis quaestionibus LXXXIII, in order to clarify what Augustine thinks about the relationship between God and human soul, where Augustine notes the significance of knowing and confessing sin as the means of cooperative salvation already described in his early works. (shrink)

The Sundanese inhabiting West Java, the second largest ethnic group in Indonesia, are characterized by a high prevalence of child malnutrition, together with high fertility. Based on an anthropometric measurement and interview survey of 310 children aged 5s body weight, and one SES factor, i.e. mother’s occupation, were selected as the predictors of the two Z scores by regression analysis, indicating more significant effects of the biological factors than the other factors. This pattern is judged to occur in less-developed and (...) high-fertility populations. Since these two Z scores were worse in the subject children than in the under-5-year-old children from the same village, more attention should be paid to the long-lasting effects of birth-related biological factors up to pre-adolescent ages, as an insufficient nutritional status tends to damage growth and health in adolescence and adulthood. (shrink)

This study explores the clusters of work–family balance among Japanese middle-aged and older adults and clarifies the characteristics of the derived clusters. Data on working adults were drawn from a pool of participants in the National Institute for Longevity Sciences—Longitudinal Study of Aging. The WFB scale consists of subscales assessing work–family conflict and work–family facilitation. First, a cluster analysis was performed using the WFB scale, and four clusters were extracted. Second, we examined associations between the four clusters and related variables (...) such as demographic characteristics, work, family, and lifestyle factors, social support, and mental health. Our findings showed that the clusters included high-WFC/high-WFF, high-WFC/low-WFF, low-WFC/high-WFF, and low-WFC/low-WFF. Differences were found in related variables among the clusters. Specifically, those in the Low-WFC/High-WFF cluster had a good lifestyle, received the highest levels of social support, and had the fewest mental health issues. Our findings have implications for maintaining sufficient WFB and promoting positive mental health among workers. (shrink)

This paper offers a novel argument for fatalism: if one accepts the logical possibility of fatalism, one must accept that fatalism is true. This argument has a similar structure to the ‘knowability paradox’, which proves that if every truth can be known by someone, then every truth is known by someone. In this paper, what I mean by ‘fatalism’ is that whatever happens now was determined to happen now in the past. Existing arguments for fatalism assume that the principle of (...) bivalence holds even for future propositions, that past truths are necessarily true, and/or that possible propositions never change into impossible propositions. However, my argument does not assume such premises. It assumes only the logical possibility of fatalism. Here, what I mean by ‘fatalism is logically possible’ is that there is at least one possible world where whatever happens now was determined to happen now in the past. Since this assumption is weak (thus is plausible), I believe it to be much stronger than the existing arguments for fatalism. In addition, I also show that what will happen in the future is determined now. (shrink)

This paper aims to distinguish two main types of coarse graining, and reveal the relationship between the notions of coarse graining and emergence. In physics, some forms of coarse graining seem to be indispensable to show a physical property, and the other merely changes our descriptions of the system. To clarify the notion of coarse graining, this article investigates the cases of the renormalization group method and irreversibility, both of which have been important topics in philosophy of science, and the (...) case of the rigid body in classical mechanics, which is an elementary case including coarse graining. The case studies reveal the distinction between substantial and mere coarse-graining. This distinction clarifies the relationships between the notions of coarse graining and emergence and further provides some implications for the issues about emergence. (shrink)

日本主義の精髄としての雪嶺哲学はヘーゲル批判の哲学体系を媒介に大塩陽明学を継承して形成されたことを指摘、雪嶺の実像に迫る。.

320年あまり続く不変不滅の「先用後利」は、いかに生まれ、いかに「富の山」を築いたか。仕事スタイルを一新する「完全な商人」の物語。.

大塩思想はどのように語られ、大塩、ルソー、譚詞同、中江兆民と比較したときに分かったことなど、大塩研究の新局面を拓く論考。.

Researchers are able to estimate what subjects attend to by using eye tracking systems. Existing approaches for analyzing eye movements are very useful to estimate attention to still objects. But they are inadequate to estimate attention to moving objects, although paying attention to moving objects is usual human behavior. Thus, we propose a novel approach and algorithm to estimate attention to moving objects more precisely. Our approach is to extract "eye tracking movements". We phrase both saccadic eye movements and smooth (...) pursuit eye movements as "eye tracking movements". Because previous works reveal that humans often track a moving object by the eye movements when they pay attention to the object, our approach seems to be appropriate. Our algorithm used for extracting eye tracking movements is called Path Stitching (PS) algorithm. The PS algorithm is a kind of Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) discovery algorithms using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a similarity measurement procedure. Eye tracking movements can be regarded as a situation that a subsequence of eye movements' trajectory is similar to a subsequence of the target's trajectory with a small or no time-difference. Because humans track a moving object by the eye movements with locally fluctuated time difference, we think the use of DTW is very appropriate. In addition, to make outputs more comprehensible, we employ the LCS discovery approach for the PS algorithm. The experimental results show that the PS algorithm is more able to extract eye tracking movements than the fixation extracting approach. The fixation extracting approach is the most popular and the strongest approach to analyze eye movements. Therefore, we conclude that our novel approach will advance the analysis of human behavior by the eye movements and human-computer interaction systems they utilize user's eye movements. (shrink)

Philosophers have long discussed whether time really passes. Simultaneously, they have also discussed whether time could have begun from an infinite past. This paper clarifies the relationship between the reality of time’s passage and an infinite past. I assert that time cannot have an infinite past if time really passes. This argument is based on a proposition that an infinite series of events cannot be completed if time really passes. A seemingly strong objection to this proposition is that no movement (...) is possible if an infinite series cannot be completed. However, movement is clearly possible; thus, an infinite series can be completed. I argue that although it is sure that an infinite series can be completed in the static view, an infinite series cannot be completed (and thus, time could not have begun from an infinite past) in the dynamic view. (shrink)

近世儒学思想史のなかで大塩平八郎に至る陽明学思想により、礼教的教養主義から仁政的政治学へと転換した思想的経緯や、神儒仏などの混交的思想からなる庶民思想と位置づけられてきた石田梅岩『都鄙問答』の思想的基 層が陽明学から構成されていたことなど、近世思想史研究に一石を投ずる問題作から構成。.

This article is an attempt by Japanese physicians to introduce the practice patterns and moral justification of Japanese critical care to the world. Japanese health care is characterized by the fact that the fee schedule does not reward high technology medicine, such as surgery and critical care. In spite of the low reimbursement, our critical care practice pattern is characterized by continuing futile treatment for terminal patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). This apparently wasteful practice can be explained by (...) fundamental Japanese cultural values, social factors in Japan, the availability of extensive insurance coverage, physicians' psychological factors, lack of cost-benefit considerations and the pragmatic approach the Japanese take to situations. We attempt to make some brief suggestions regarding the improvement of our critical care practices. Although we can not fully present quantitative data to support our argument, this article represents our real-world approaches to the ethical issues in the ICU in Japan. (shrink)

This study posits that Bohr failed to defend the completeness of the quantum mechanical description of physical reality against Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen’s paper. Although there are many papers in the literature that focus on Bohr’s argument in his reply to the EPR paper, the purpose of the current paper is not to clarify Bohr’s argument. Instead, I contend that regardless of which interpretation of Bohr’s argument is correct, his defense of the quantum mechanical description of physical reality remained incomplete. For example, a (...) recent trend in studies of Bohr’s work is to suggest he considered the wave-function description to be epistemic. However, such an interpretation cannot be used to defend the completeness of the quantum mechanical description. (shrink)

When we examine the quality of life for each individual, several specific dimensions need to be considered. Health conditions and quality of family relationships are critical. When the individual in question is married, his/her marital quality is important. When he/she has a job, subjective assessment of that job is important. Social relationships regarding friends, neighbors, colleagues, relatives, etc. may be critical also. Although the quality of life is more than the sum of qualities of these specific areas of one's life, (...) it is still determined to a great extent by the qualities of these sub-areas, including marital and family relationships. (shrink)

The Miyashita experiments are very interesting and the results should be examined from a viewpoint of attractor dynamics. Amit's target article shows a path toward realistic modeling by artificial neural networks (ANN), but it is not necessarily the only one. I introduce another model that can explain a substantial part of the empirical observations and makes an interesting prediction. This model consists of such units that have nonmonotonic input-output characteristics with local inhibition neurons.

In my view, human rights must find an appropriate philosophical foundation/justification to be incorporated into non-Western societies and such a foundation/justification must be attractive and inspiring for ordinary citizens in those societies and be based on their own intellectual resources, including local languages. In contemporary Japan, ‘KEN RI (??)’ is considered as the Japanese term corresponding to human rights. However, Fukuzawa Yukichi, the most influential intellectual leader of the early Meiji period, introduced human rights as ‘KEN RI TSUU GI (????)’. (...) The Chinese character ‘KEN (?)’, in the most fundamental text of Confucianism, the teachings of Confucius (551-479 B.C.), Analects, means being able to weigh occurring events and determine the application of principles to them. In the account of Tomonobu Imamichi, a Japanese philosopher, ‘GI (?)’, usually considered as justice, originally meant responsibility. Thus, ‘KEN RI TSUU GI (????)’ can be reinterpreted as being able to practically apply principles (?) to those events, while assuming responsibility (?) before Heaven and the community to which the person belongs. This view of humans as being embedded in communities and as centers of responsibility in the secular and transcendental dimensions is apparently different from the Western philosophical view of humans as rational beings with the capacity to act according to the universal law, but still defends human rights and the democratic development of society. Key words: human rights, philosophical foundation, Confucianism. (shrink)