This paper presents the first English translation of one of Tanabe’s early essays on Kant. Tanabe marks the occasion of the first translation of the Critique of Practical Reason into Japanese by providing his reflections on Kant’s theory of freedom in this essay. This creative essay by Tanabe represents the hallmark Kyoto School interpretation of Kant. Tanabe weaves his account of Kant with elements from other philosophers in an attempt to think systematically about the nature of (...) freedom. He agrees with Kant that morality itself “rises and falls” with the idea of freedom; however, Tanabe also tries to rescue some of the pitfalls he sees in Kant’s theory by reconstructing Kant’s account. In this brief, but rich essay, Tanabe unfolds one of the more creative aspects of his philosophy through Kant. (shrink)

This article introduces English translations of Tanabe’s two essays entitled “Moral Freedom” and “On Moral Freedom Revisited.” In these essays, Tanabe tries to understand the unity of the contradictory division between freedom and necessity, while remaining truthful to the moral experience. Freedom is ultimately characterized as ideality that we ought to realize in reality, while the stage of religion constitutes the ultimate end of such moral struggles. Tanabe does not clearly work out how the continuity of the (...) freedom-necessity discontinuity is possible in these essays. Nevertheless, we can gain insight into the early stages of Tanabe’s practical metaphysics that culminate in his mature works on the philosophy of religion. The translators’ introduction will highlight these points and also provide a brief description of the historical background in which the publication of these texts took place in 1917. (shrink)

"Tanabe's agenda was not religious but philosophical in that he tried to integrate Eastern and Western insights in order to acquire a cross-cultural philosophical vision for the post-war world community.... This book shows his superior philosophical originality.... It is high time that Tanabe's thought should be introduced to the West."—Joseph Kitagawa, University of Chicago.

Dans son premier article, Tanabe soutient que le jugement n’est pas seulement un acte secondaire de la pensée : il est aussi l’acte par lequel l’objet est posé et sur lequel la connaissance se fonde, lorsqu’un acte d’attention se tourne vers le contenu de l’expérience pure. Dans celle-ci, objet et sujet sont encore indistincts. Ce jugement thétique fondamental diffère des autres jugements en ceci qu’en lui, il n’y a pas de décalage entre exigence et reconnaissance. Il est donc toujours (...) affirmatif et ne devient pas clairement conscient. Tanabe entend éviter ainsi l’idéalisme subjectif. (shrink)

This article introduces the first English translation of one of Tanabe’s early essays on metaphysics. It questions the relation of the universal to the particular in context of logic, phenomenology, Neo-Kantian epistemology, and classical metaphysics. Tanabe provides his reflections on the nature of the concept of universality and its constitutive relation to phenomenal particulars through critical analyses of the issue as it is discussed across various schools of philosophy including: British Empiricism, the Marburg School, the Austrian School, the (...) Kyoto School, and Platonism. In this essay, Tanabe reveals his ability to think metaphysically the ground for the possibility of reasoning and dares to voice his own thought beyond references to the most prominent thinkers of his time from distinct intellectual traditions in both the east and the west. This essay, therefore, demonstrates that his strong tendency to move beyond the received epistemology and phenomenology of the European intellectual tradition to metaphysics was already present in the early days of his academic life and thereby marks a more general contribution of the Kyoto School of Philosophy to distinct European schools of thought in the early twentieth century. (shrink)

Self-compassion, sharing some commonalities with positive psychology 2.0 approaches, is associated with better mental health outcomes in diverse populations, including workers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is heightened awareness of the importance of self-care for fostering mental health at work. However, evidence regarding the applications of self-compassion interventions in work-related contexts has not been systematically reviewed to date. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to synthesize and evaluate the utility of self-compassion interventions targeting work-related well-being, as well as assess the (...) methodological quality of relevant studies. Eligible articles were identified from research databases including ProQuest, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. The quality of non-randomized trials and randomized controlled trials was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Quality Assessment Table, respectively. The literature search yielded 3,387 titles from which ten studies met the inclusion criteria. All ten studies reported promising effects of self-compassion training for work-related well-being. The methodological quality of these studies was medium. All ten studies recruited workers in a caring field and were mostly conducted in Western countries. The Self-Compassion Scale or its short-form was used in almost all instances. Findings indicate that self-compassion training can improve self-compassion and other work-related well-being outcomes in working populations. However, in general, there is need for greater methodological quality in work-related self-compassion intervention studies to advance understanding regarding the applications and limitations of this technique in work contexts. Furthermore, future studies should focus on a broader range of employee groups, including non-caring professions as well as individuals working in non-Western countries. (shrink)

Ethics is a device which is produced by the human consciousness to regulate the human behaviour or society in a sound manner. Organisms are manipulated by techniques of molecular biology these days. Then, it is so difficult to recognize the problems of life manipulation by the ethical principle raised by our sensing level. To regulate the society greatly influenced by modern life sciences, it is time to utilize the mechanistic knowledge about organisms as a basic principle of ethics (Molecular ethics). (...) Molecular ethics is not an ethics produced only by the humane logic, but adopts the property of genome operating system (OS) as a core principle clarified by the molecular biology. It is substantiated by life sciences, but is not a simple scientific decision-making means. It promotes scientific experiments with the integrity to knowledge. Scientific knowledges are projections of the rule of life. Molecular ethics is an ethics which seeks for the rules of evolution; i.e. rules for transcending human being. On the other hand, traditional ethics (individual ethics; ethics based on indivisualism) is an ethics which regards present human being as a terminus of evolution. In this respect, this is against the principle of genome OS (system of evolution). Life sciences and technologies has been developing to meet our wants, however, those activities nowadays seem to be against those rules of genome OS. Therefore, it is extremely important for us to consider the ethics applicable for the life manipulation era. (shrink)

BackgroundHealthcare professionals use the ethics of justice and care to construct moral reasoning. These ethics are conflicting in nature; different value systems and orders of justice and care are applied to the cause of actual moral conflict. We aim to clarify the structure and factors of healthcare professionals’ moral conflicts through the lens of justice and care to obtain suggestions for conflict resolutions.MethodSemi-structured interviews about experiences of moral conflict were conducted with Japanese nurses recruited using the snowball sampling method. Interviews (...) were conducted based on the real-life moral conflict and choice interview. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, then analyzed based on the interpretive method of data analysis. Verbatim transcripts were read four times, first to get an overall sense of the conflict, then to understand the person’s thoughts and actions that explain the conflict, and third and fourth to identify perspectives of justice and care, respectively. Each moral perspective was classified into categories according to Chally’s taxonomy.ResultsAmong 31 responses, 2 that did not mention moral conflict were excluded, leaving 29 responses that were analyzed. These responses were classified into six cases with conflict between both justice and care perspectives or within one perspective, and into two cases without conflict between perspectives. The “rules” category of justice and the “welfare of others” category of care were included in many cases of conflict between two perspectives, and they frequently occurred in each perspective.ConclusionsThe nurses in this study suggest that they make moral judgments based on moral values that are intertwined with justice and care perspectives complex manner.Organizational, professional, and patient-related factors influenced conflicts between justice and care. Additionally, multiple overlapping loyalties created conflicts within justice perspectives, and multifaceted aspects of care-provider’s responsibility and patient need created conflicts within care. Decision-making biased towards one perspective can be distorted. It is important to consider ethical issues from both perspectives to resolve conflicts, especially the effective use of the ethics of care is recommended. (shrink)

IntroductionWind instrument players sometimes suffer from erosion of the mucous membrane of the lip. This is caused by the action and pressure of the mouthpiece of the wind instrument against teeth. To address this problem, a lip shield is fitted over the dental arch to prevent direct contact between the lips and teeth. However, there are a few studies on the influence of the lip shield on the acoustics of wind instruments. The purpose of this study was to analyze the (...) psychoacoustics of a clarinet performance with the player wearing a custom-made soft lip shield to prevent mucosal erosion of the lower lip.Case DescriptionA lip shield was custom-made with a soft thermoplastic material for a female clarinetist who complained of mucosal erosion and pain of the lower lip. The psychoacoustics of her musical performance played in different dynamics, fortissimo, mezzo forte and pianissimo were analyzed, including loudness and sharpness. A self-evaluation questionnaire with items rated on a 10-point scale was administered. After wearing the lip shield, the patient reported that the mucosal erosion and pain of her lower lip when playing clarinet resolved. The lip shield had little effect on the loudness. There was a slight decrease in sharpness when the lip shield was worn compared to when it was not, describing the reduction of high frequencies. Furthermore, fewer variations in sharpness between the tones were observed.ConclusionThe results suggest that lip shields made of soft materials can eliminate mucosal erosion and pain of the lower lip while having little effect on performance, although, a slight change in timbre is possible. (shrink)

Empirical surveys about medical futility are scarce relative to its theoretical assumptions. We aimed to evaluate the difference of attitudes between laypeople and physicians towards the issue. A questionnaire survey was designed. Japanese laypeople (via Internet) and physicians with various specialties (via paper-and-pencil questionnaire) were asked about whether they would provide potentially futile treatments for end-of-life patients in vignettes, important factors for judging a certain treatment futile, and threshold of quantitative futility which reflects the numerical probability that an act will (...) produce the desired physiological effect. Also, the physicians were asked about their practical frequency and important reasons for futile treatments. 1134 laypeople and 401 (80%) physicians responded. In all vignettes, the laypeople were more affirmative in providing treatments in question significantly. As the factors for judging futility, medical information and quality of life (QOL) of the patient were rather stressed by the physicians. Treatment wish of the family of the patient and psychological impact on patient side due to the treatment were rather stressed by laypeople. There were wide variations in the threshold of judging quantitative futility in both groups. 88.3% of the physicians had practical experience of providing futile treatment. Important reasons for it were communication problem with patient side and lack of systems regarding futility or foregoing such treatment. Laypeople are more supportive of providing potentially futile treatments than physicians. The difference is explained by the importance of medical information, the patient family’s influence to decision-making and QOL of the patient. The threshold of qualitative futility is suggested to be arbitrary. (shrink)

Dans cet article, Tanabe reprend une question kantienne : quelle place la liberté, entendue comme « volonté auto-législatrice », peut-elle avoir dans un monde régi par les lois nécessaires de la causalité? Tanabe rappelle, avec Kant, que, comme noumène, ayant une cause spontanée, la liberté est « théoriquement possible », mais soutient que pour qu’elle soit concrètement réalisée, est nécessaire un dépassement de toutes les « limitations individuelles » à travers l’unification du sujet moral agissant avec la « (...) valeur absolue » qu’est. (shrink)

A murder case that had some features in common with the Tarasoff case occurred in Sasebo City, Japan, in 2014. A 15-year-old high school girl was murdered and her 16-year-old classmate was arrested on suspicion of homicide. One and a half months before the murder, a psychiatrist who had been examining the girl called a prefectural child consultation centre to warn that she might commit murder, but he did not reveal her name, considering it his professional duty to keep it (...) confidential. Article 134 of the Japanese Criminal Law states that doctors should not disclose patient information obtained in clinical practice without a legitimate reason, but the Japanese Supreme Court has not specified what constitutes a legitimate reason. Mass media and commentators suggested that the murder could have been prevented if the psychiatrist had disclosed the girl's name to the authorities or had isolated her coercively in a psychiatric ward. However, the authors disagree with such claims. This article discusses obligations imposed on concerned individuals and third party members in cases involving ethical dilemmas regarding patient confidentiality and information disclosure. It is concluded that everyone should fulfill their obligations to prevent such tragedies and one should judge the appropriateness of others’ actions based not on the consequences of their actions, but on the processes used to decide on a course of action and their commitment. It is necessary for us to establish a society in which concerned parties can do what they think is ethically best without fearing ungrounded charges. (shrink)

In Japan, few studies and ethical debates have addressed medical futility, but articles suggesting the practice of such treatment exist. The present study aimed to explore attitudes about this by examining personal practical experiences of those who have been involved in judging treatments as futile. We employed a qualitative descriptive design with content analysis of semi-structured and focus group interviews with 11 Japanese physicians and 9 nurses of a university hospital in Japan. The interviews mined their practical experience to identify (...) why they provided treatment that was regarded futile, factors for determining futility, and attitudes toward foregoing futile treatments. All participants had provided treatments judged as futile for various reasons, such as patient request, inadequate decision-making processes, request from another physician, and the lack of standards with which to judge futility, among others. In addition to medical science factors , participants also considered non-medical science factors to determine if a treatment was futile. Almost all participants agreed that futility should be defined and that such treatments should be foregone, but they did not take a proactive stance towards this due to factors related to the healthcare worker‟s situation or the patient. Although the implications of the present study are somewhat limited, our results indicate that futile treatments are provided at multiple treatment departments. Health-care workers employ a variety of factors to determine futility, including non-medical science factors. As provision of such treatment is not always performed for reasons of patient autonomy, diverse approaches should be employed to cope with situations regarding futile treatments. (shrink)

In the issue of futile treatments, patients and healthcare professionals tend to disagree. We conducted an Internet questionnaire survey and explored the Japanese nurses’ attitude toward this topic, comparing with that of laypeople. In total, 522 nurses and 1134 laypeople completed the questionnaire. Nurse respondents were significantly less in favor of providing potentially futile treatments in hypothetical vignettes and stressed quality of life of the patient for judging the futility of a certain treatment. Of them, 85.4% reported having experienced providing (...) such treatments. Reasons for providing them included factors related to not only patients but also healthcare teams. Our results indicate that attitudes among Japanese nurses toward the issue of futile treatments are different from patients and that their actual practice is influenced by several situational factors. (shrink)