Wabi Sabi is the Japanese Zen philosophy that all things are imperfect, unfinished and impermanent. It is a fresh way of seeing and moving through the world when our lives, literally and figuratively, feel cluttered. This book shows us how to apply this concept in the context of daily life and offers ideas on how to see it, embrace it and incorporate it into everyday thoughts, objects and situations."--Publisher description.

Ethics, Policy & Environment, Volume 15, Issue 1, Page 37-43, March 2012.

In this study, we analyze choice in the presence of some conflict that affects the decision time, a subject that has been documented in the literature. We axiomatize a multiattribute decision time representation, which is a dynamic extension of the classic multiattribute expected utility theory that allows potentially incomplete preferences. Under this framework, one alternative is preferred to another in a certain period if and only if the weighted sum of the attribute-dependent expected utility induced by the former alternative is (...) larger than that induced by the latter for all attribute weights in a closed and convex set. MDT uniquely determines the decision time as the earliest period at which the ranking between alternatives becomes decisive. The comparative statics result indicates that the decision time provides useful information to locate indifference curves in a specific setting. MDT also explains various empirical findings in economics and other relevant fields. (shrink)

Since 1993, coalition governments have replaced the 38-year-long, one-party dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (the LDP) in Japan. Except for one year, from 1993 to 1994, the LDP has remained a key party in successive governing coalitions, but the dynamics of party competition has been completely transformed since the period of the LDP's dominance. Although the LDP has survived to form a variety of coalitions ranging from a minority to an over-sized majority, since 1998 the Democratic Party of Japan (...) (DPJ) has continued to counter the LDP governments. The transformation of party systems in Japan accompanies the party switching of legislators and the mergers, breakups, extinctions, and formations of parties. In this regard, the Japanese case provides an interesting example to show how parties attempt to change the dynamics of policy competition by switching and reorganizing. Parties also attempt to shift their policy positions to attract public support and to gain a competitive edge in government formation. Using expert survey data about the policy positions of parties, this study explicates the dynamics involved in the reorganization of parties and the formation of governments. (shrink)

Traduction de l’« Introduction à la mésologie », premier des quatre actes de Mésologie de la rencontre : une invitation au dialogue, de Kioka Nobuo. Cet acte comprend trois scènes dont chacune se compose d’abord d’un cours suivi d’un dialogue entre trois personnages. La scène 1 « Qu’est-ce qu’un milieu? » définit les trois concepts d’environnement, d’écosystème et de milieu, le « milieu » se distinguant des deux autres en tant que leur trajection. La scène 2 « La mésologie (...) comme géo-philosophie » montre que les notions géophilosophiques, « lieu » « paysage » et « rencontre » ont une importance décisive pour la philosophie japonaise comme mésologie. La scène 3 « Critique de la civilisation moderne », enfin, insiste sur la nécessité de renouer l’« entrelien » ( aida ) brisé par le dualisme moderne, afin de dépasser la « logique du désir », source de la crise environnementale d’aujourd’hui. (shrink)

In Plato's "Hippias Major" 292e6-7, we can find a self-predication sentence; "The fine is always fine." (We have similar expressions in "Protagoras" 330c4-6, 330d8-el, "Lysis" 220b6-7.) How should we interpret this sentence? We cannot give it any metaphysical meaning drawn from Plato's own theory of Form, which is explicit in his middle dialogues. "The fine" here should be the logical cause, not the one of the metaphysical essentials (cf. Paul Woodruff's "Plateo Hippias Major", p. 150). So taking a sentence like (...) "parthenos kale kalon" (287e4), we can safely paraphrase it in Woodruff's manner: "a fine girl is a fine thing." This can avoid reading the metaphysical meaning into the text. And I would like to make a new proposal for reading of 292e6-7: "the fine thing is what is to be called fine." This is to emphasize the unique character of the self-predication sentences in the early dialogues. In the Socratic way of discourse, Socrates and his partner get involved into "trial and error" during their pursuit of the knowledge. What they can do then is to give their opinions which seem to them true (so-called alethes doxa", cf. "Meno" 85c), and to get close examinations of them. And in this way they are getting closer to the knowledge. My interpretation well describes these activities. (shrink)

The psychological gap based on distrust and mutual ignorance between the Islamic world and the rest of the world, including Japan, has never been wider than it is today. Some might think that Islamic and other civilizations share little common ground in terms of basic values concerning humanity. Some even claim that “the clash of civilizations” is inevitable. However, it is too early to conclude that these civilizations will always be in conflict with each other. Although their theological interpretations of (...) God and the teachings of their religions show clear contrasts, there might be some common values that they can share in social life. One of the most prestigious and well-known Islamic boarding schools or Pesantren in Indonesia, Al-Mukumin of Solo in Central Java, offers fundamentalist education. Yet, the students in this school still learn about the importance of co-existence with non-Muslims through social activities and classroom instructions. Multiculturalism and the appreciation of non-Muslims are clearly emphasised in the curriculum. Based on the field research conducted in January 2013, I will attempt to picture the state of Islamic education in Indonesia and identify some values common to Islamic and other civilizations, such as Western and Japanese. (shrink)

Nishida’s analyses of human bodily existence, anticipating Merleau-Ponty’s, led him to accomplish his own “return to the lifeworld.” The later Nishida wrote: “I have now come to regard what I used to call the world of pure experience as the world of historical reality. The world of action-intuition is none other than the world of pure experience.” But Nishida’s attempt at a radical reconstruction of philosophy seems to suffer from a metaphysical optimism deriving from his notion of the “place of (...) absolute nothingness”; in 1945, when Japan’s defeat and his own death were approaching him as if competing with each other, Nishida wrote: “A world war must be a world war which aims to negate a world war and to contribute to eternal peace.” "Our motivation for philosophizing must be, not wonder, but the deep sorrow of life"---Nishida's often-quoted metaphilosophical prescription was meant to be a critique of Western philosophy's penchant to objectify Being. It is said, however, that the "philosophy in search of peace" in the "Post-Hiroshima Age" was occasioned with "fear." By way of critical reconsideration of Nishidaphilosophy, this paper intends to search for a new philosophy of history, one prerequisite for which would be to comprehend concretely the relationships between the various “dimensions of reality.” And it would be nothing but those cardinal questions accompanied with wonder, sorrow, or fear that can bring into lightthe principal dimensions structuring the multiple-reality of our times. (shrink)

The term ‘humanism’ is Western in origin. It denotes the tradition that places special emphasis on cultivation of letters for education. In the West, this tradition was originated with sophists and Isocrates, established by Cicero, and was developed by Renaissance humanists. East Asia, however, also has its own humanistic traditions with equal educational relevance. One of these is a Japanese version of Confucian humanism established by Ogyu Sorai. This tradition is based on the interpretation of Confucius as a lover of (...) poetry and a teacher of rites. In this article, we discuss the main features of East Asian humanism represented by Sorai and Confucius. Then, after an overview of Western humanism, we aim to elucidate both the convergence and divergence of the two traditions. The investigation will help us to envision humanistic education of the twenty-first century. (shrink)

Chomin Nakae (Japanese thinker,1847-1901) has been called “the Rousseau of the East” by both Japanese and Chinese because he translated Jean-Jacque Rousseau, for instance, the Social Contract into Japanese and Chinese. It would be natural to suppose that Chomin read Rousseau’s books as an overseas student in France from 1872 to 1874 after the time of “ the Paris Commune”. It seems that many Chinese overseas students in Japan read Rousseau’s books in Chinese and Japanese translated by Chomin and accepted (...) democratic and revolutionary thoughts originally born in the West and brought them home. Adding to the fact, it is insisted that the substance of Chomin’s thought is rather Confucian-biased democracy to be governed morally by both people and the sovereign than pure popular supremacy, which was gotten through examining the results of the recent research. (shrink)

“邂逅”の不在こそが世界の危機の根源にある。真に生きられる世界を目指し、新たな哲学の地平を切り拓く画期的論究。.

イスラーム哲学vs中国哲学、対決・調和・熟成。イスラーム思想はどのように東漸し、中国はそれをいかに受容し、そしていかにして新たな哲学を形成したのか。イスラームと中国の文明接触を哲学レベルで解明し、その 歴史を実証的に探求する。.