明治の近代化のなかで、日本人が初めて海外に向けて、自国の文化の全体像を示した書である『武士道』。義、勇、仁、礼、信、そして名誉、忠義...。桜花にたとえられた武士の精神と、日本人の依って立つ思考や道徳 意識は、いかにして生まれたか。グローバル・スタンダードの荒波が押し寄せ、寄る辺ない風潮の漂う今だからこそ、本書を通して考える―日本とは、日本人とは何なのか、と。.

武士道とは何か。武士はいかに生き、死すべきなのか―。戦乱の世が生み出した軍学書『甲陽軍鑑』『五輪書』から、泰平の時代の倫理書『山鹿語類』『葉隠』へ。そして、幕末維新期の吉田松陰、西郷隆盛へと連なるサム ライの思想水脈を経て、武士道を世界に知らしめた新渡戸稲造まで。日本人必読の名著12冊で知る、高潔にして強靱な武士の倫理と美学。章末には、各書から選りすぐった人生指南の「名言」を付す。.

Death in the life of the samurai -- An introduction to Yamamoto Tunetomo's Hagakure -- The Hagakure -- A leisurely chat in the evening shadows -- A samurai must devote his heart firmly to bushidō -- Hardship is a beneficial experience -- There is nothing as deep as giri -- Close your eyes and think of your lord -- Death is a punishment not meted out lightly -- Even if it contains poison, what's the big deal? -- Naritomi Hyōgo's (...) words about achieving victory -- The quarrel (kenka) of Araki Kuzaemon -- You are weaker than you look -- "Victory or defeat is a trivial matter" -- Military strategies. (shrink)

Death in the life of the samurai -- An introduction to Yamamoto Tunetomo's Hagakure -- The Hagakure -- A leisurely chat in the evening shadows -- A samurai must devote his heart firmly to bushidō -- Hardship is a beneficial experience -- There is nothing as deep as giri -- Close your eyes and think of your lord -- Death is a punishment not meted out lightly -- Even if it contains poison, what's the big deal? -- Naritomi Hyōgo's (...) words about achieving victory -- The quarrel (kenka) of Araki Kuzaemon -- You are weaker than you look -- "Victory or defeat is a trivial matter" -- Military strategies. (shrink)

Outlines the ethical code of the samurai in a time when the martial skills of the warrior became redundant and his role was subsumed into governmental service.

In an attempt to place Kashiwagi historically, this article traces the formation of his thinking. Despite having inherited his father’s Shin Buddhist temple, Kashiwagi chose to work as a Christian pastor. Later in life he turned his attention to specifically Christian philosophy, but his early exposure to Buddhism as well as a primary education in Confucianism were decisive in shaping his ideas. In this sense, Kashiwagi represents one prototype of Meiji Japan’s adoption of Christianity: having grown up with the writings (...) of Shinran and the Chinese classics, he remained grounded in his own multi-religious and intercultural background without sliding into simple syncretism. From this standpoint he took part in the prevailing controversy over the emperor system. Without compromising his commitments to universal Christian orthodoxy on the one hand, and critical thinking on the other, Kashiwagi argued for the special significance of the emperor, as these pages will document. (shrink)

The prevailing theory states that either Japanese voters have stopped ideologically distinguishing parties or that the main political parties in Japan have become more centrist in recent years. These arguments are based on survey questions asking citizens to locate parties on an ideological scale. However, these questions may suffer from noise caused by respondents who misinterpret the question wording or answer the questions inappropriately to mask their misunderstanding of the terms and . To address this problem by extracting only the (...) views of those who know the meaning of leftright terminology largely perceived parties’ ideologies in the same way as experts. Additionally, I find that even these voters face difficulties in placing ambiguous or new parties on the political spectrum. This study has implications not only for understanding trends in Japanese political ideology, but also for survey design and analysis of heterogeneous survey responses. (shrink)

We examined amygdala subregion volumes in patients with a first episode of major depression and in healthy subjects. Covariate-adjusted linear regression was performed to compare the MD and healthy groups, and adjustments for age, gender, and total estimated intracranial volume showed no differences in amygdala subregion volumes between the healthy and MD groups. Within the MD group, we examined the association between amygdala subregion volume and the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score and the HAMD subscale score, and found (...) no association in the left amygdala. In the right amygdala, however, there was an inverse linear association between the HAMD total and the HAMD core and lateral nucleus and anterior-amygdaloid-regions. Furthermore, an inverse linear association was seen between the HAMD psychic and the lateral nucleus, anterior-amygdaloid-regions, transition, and whole amygdala. The findings of this study suggest that the severity of MD and some symptoms of MD are associated with right amygdala volume. There have been few reports on the relationship between MD and amygdala subregional volume, and further research is needed to accumulate more data for further validation. (shrink)

This volume contains a selection of Professor Uzawa's important contributions to mathematical economics. Subjects covered by these nineteen essays include consumption, production, equilibrium, capital, growth, planning, international trade, and the theory of social overhead capital. Written in the 1960s and early 1970s, the papers form a basis upon which economic theory has developed over the last twenty years. The collection includes some of Uzawa's classic contributions, such as 'Preference and Rational Choice in the Theory of Consumption', 'Time Preference, the Consumption (...) Function, and Optimum Asset Holdings', 'Neutral Inventions and the Stability of Growth Equilibrium', 'On a Two-Sector Model of Economic Growth', 'Time Preference and the Penrose Effect in a Two-Class Model of Economic Growth', and 'On the Economics of Social Overhead Capital'. The collection will be useful not only in understanding the nature of the development in economic theory today, but also in reflecting upon the direction toward which economic theory will be advancing in the future. (shrink)

These volumes present the text of Abū Ma’͑šar’s _Great Introduction to Astrology_ in Arabic and Greek and the divergences in the Latin translations. It provides a fully-comprehensive account of traditional astrological doctrine and its philosophical bases.

In the trolley problem, a well-known moral dilemma, the intuitive process is believed to increase deontological judgments, while deliberative reasoning is thought to promote utilitarian decisions. Therefore, based on the dual-process model, there seems to be an attempt to save several lives at the expense of a few others in a deliberative manner. This study examines the validity of this argument. To this end, we manipulate decision-making time in the standard trolley dilemma to compare differences among 119 Japanese female undergraduates (...) under three conditions: intuitive judgment, deliberative judgment, and judgment after a group discussion. The current results demonstrate that utilitarian judgments decreased from 52.9% in the intuition condition to 43.7% in the deliberation condition and 37.0% after the discussion. Additional analysis suggests that the decrease in utilitarian judgments may be related to psychological unwillingness to assume responsibility for the lives of others rather than to an increase in deontological judgments. Finally, these results are discussed from an adaptationist perspective. (shrink)

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of individuals’ help-seeking preference and their collective perception of the organizational climate in school on teachers’ mental health. Previous studies demonstrated that HSP was negatively associated with risk of burnout, suggesting that teachers who hesitate to seek help from their colleagues are more likely to have mental health problems. Thus, the current study hypothesized that a collegial organizational climate would be negatively associated with burnout. To test this hypothesis, we (...) developed a scale to measure schoolteachers’ collective perception of their organizational climate, and the newly developed scale was used to assess its relationship with HSP and teachers’ burnout risk. The results demonstrated that younger teachers, a low level of help-seeking, and a less collaborative climate increased the risk of burnout. The results also showed a significant interaction effect, indicating that HSP was less closely associated with teachers’ burnout risk if their organization was perceived as having a collegial climate. These findings clearly show how the social environment of a school’s organizational climate can affect schoolteachers’ mental health in Japan. (shrink)

Two studies aimed to examine cultural differences in social support provision, with or without solicitation, in Japan and the United States. In Study 1, we replicated a previous study with Japanese university students. We found that the Japanese participants did not provide social support when it was not solicited, as compared with when it was solicited. Furthermore, in Study 2, participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire regarding a hypothetical stressful situation experienced by a close other and to indicate (...) their willingness to provide support. We confirmed our hypothesis that Japanese participants hesitate to provide unsolicited support to close others, even when they recognize that the close others are in need, whereas the American participants do not hesitate to provide such support. Contrastingly, regarding solicited support, the Japanese and Americans were equally ready to provide support, as hypothesized. The cultural difference in social support resides in the provision of unsolicited support. These results suggest that differences in culturally appropriate responses to needy people are responsible for the difference in the provision of unsolicited vs. solicited social support. (shrink)

What chemists take as molecular structure is a theoretical construct based on the concepts of chemical bond, atoms in molecules, etc. and hence it should be distinguished from tangible structures around us. The practical adequacy of it has been demonstrated by the established method of retro-synthetic analysis, for instance. But it is not derived a priori from quantum mechanical treatments of the molecule and criticized for being irrelevant to the reality of the molecule. There is persistent skepticism about it. The (...) present study aims to overcome this skepticism by having recourse to the concepts of affordance and phenomenal field. The basic idea of our approach is suggested by the following statement of Niels Bohr: ‘evidence obtained under different experimental conditions cannot be comprehended within a single picture but must be regarded as complementary in the sense that only the totality of the phenomena exhausts the possible information about the objects’. This implies that we should take account of a context in which the cognition of a fact arises when we think about human activities including science. This can be realized by invoking affordances of a complex such as {agent, devices, methods, substances, surroundings}. That is to say, affordances are context-relative dispositional attributes of {agent-material world} complexes as is asserted by Harré and Llored. The phenomenal field is a conceptual device which schematizes the contextual aspect of affordance and, more importantly, serves as a link between the concept of affordance and Kant’s theory of knowledge, by which alone affordances are realized as the dispositional properties of {agent-material world} complexes. Because affordances become actualized in various phenomenal fields, affordances of one and the same object may well be distinct from one another. In conclusion we can take that molecular structure is the affordance of a complex that includes a chemist who is engaged in organic synthesis, whereas a quantum mechanical picture of the molecule may be one of the possible affordances of a complex that includes a quantum chemist who cares about electronic states of the molecule. (shrink)

What chemists take as molecular structure is a theoretical construct based on the concepts of chemical bond, atoms in molecules, etc. and hence it should be distinguished from tangible structures around us. The practical adequacy of it has been demonstrated by the established method of retro-synthetic analysis, for instance. But it is not derived a priori from quantum mechanical treatments of the molecule and criticized for being irrelevant to the reality of the molecule. There is persistent skepticism about it. The (...) present study aims to overcome this skepticism by having recourse to the concepts of affordance and phenomenal field. The basic idea of our approach is suggested by the following statement of Niels Bohr: ‘evidence obtained under different experimental conditions cannot be comprehended within a single picture but must be regarded as complementary in the sense that only the totality of the phenomena exhausts the possible information about the objects’. This implies that we should take account of a context in which the cognition of a fact arises when we think about human activities including science. This can be realized by invoking affordances of a complex such as {agent, devices, methods, substances, surroundings}. That is to say, affordances are context-relative dispositional attributes of {agent-material world} complexes as is asserted by Harré and Llored. The phenomenal field is a conceptual device which schematizes the contextual aspect of affordance and, more importantly, serves as a link between the concept of affordance and Kant’s theory of knowledge, by which alone affordances are realized as the dispositional properties of {agent-material world} complexes. Because affordances become actualized in various phenomenal fields, affordances of one and the same object may well be distinct from one another. In conclusion we can take that molecular structure is the affordance of a complex that includes a chemist who is engaged in organic synthesis, whereas a quantum mechanical picture of the molecule may be one of the possible affordances of a complex that includes a quantum chemist who cares about electronic states of the molecule. (shrink)

What chemists take as molecular structure is a theoretical construct based on the concepts of chemical bond, atoms in molecules, etc. and hence it should be distinguished from tangible structures around us. The practical adequacy of it has been demonstrated by the established method of retro-synthetic analysis, for instance. But it is not derived a priori from quantum mechanical treatments of the molecule and criticized for being irrelevant to the reality of the molecule. There is persistent skepticism about it. The (...) present study aims to overcome this skepticism by having recourse to the concepts of affordance and phenomenal field. The basic idea of our approach is suggested by the following statement of Niels Bohr: ‘evidence obtained under different experimental conditions cannot be comprehended within a single picture but must be regarded as complementary in the sense that only the totality of the phenomena exhausts the possible information about the objects’. This implies that we should take account of a context in which the cognition of a fact arises when we think about human activities including science. This can be realized by invoking affordances of a complex such as {agent, devices, methods, substances, surroundings}. That is to say, affordances are context-relative dispositional attributes of {agent-material world} complexes as is asserted by Harré and Llored. The phenomenal field is a conceptual device which schematizes the contextual aspect of affordance and, more importantly, serves as a link between the concept of affordance and Kant’s theory of knowledge, by which alone affordances are realized as the dispositional properties of {agent-material world} complexes. Because affordances become actualized in various phenomenal fields, affordances of one and the same object may well be distinct from one another. In conclusion we can take that molecular structure is the affordance of a complex that includes a chemist who is engaged in organic synthesis, whereas a quantum mechanical picture of the molecule may be one of the possible affordances of a complex that includes a quantum chemist who cares about electronic states of the molecule. (shrink)

What chemists take as molecular structure is a theoretical construct based on the concepts of chemical bond, atoms in molecules, etc. and hence it should be distinguished from tangible structures around us. The practical adequacy of it has been demonstrated by the established method of retro-synthetic analysis, for instance. But it is not derived a priori from quantum mechanical treatments of the molecule and criticized for being irrelevant to the reality of the molecule. There is persistent skepticism about it. The (...) present study aims to overcome this skepticism by having recourse to the concepts of affordance and phenomenal field. The basic idea of our approach is suggested by the following statement of Niels Bohr: ‘evidence obtained under different experimental conditions cannot be comprehended within a single picture but must be regarded as complementary in the sense that only the totality of the phenomena exhausts the possible information about the objects’. This implies that we should take account of a context in which the cognition of a fact arises when we think about human activities including science. This can be realized by invoking affordances of a complex such as {agent, devices, methods, substances, surroundings}. That is to say, affordances are context-relative dispositional attributes of {agent-material world} complexes as is asserted by Harré and Llored. The phenomenal field is a conceptual device which schematizes the contextual aspect of affordance and, more importantly, serves as a link between the concept of affordance and Kant’s theory of knowledge, by which alone affordances are realized as the dispositional properties of {agent-material world} complexes. Because affordances become actualized in various phenomenal fields, affordances of one and the same object may well be distinct from one another. In conclusion we can take that molecular structure is the affordance of a complex that includes a chemist who is engaged in organic synthesis, whereas a quantum mechanical picture of the molecule may be one of the possible affordances of a complex that includes a quantum chemist who cares about electronic states of the molecule. (shrink)

The classical model of the molecule assumes that it has a definite shape and structure like a mechanical object in the world of possible experience. This study deals with this assumption so as to shed some light on the foundations of the model. Arguments based on Kant’s theory of transcendental idealism suggest that neither shape nor structure are attributes of the molecule, but are rather contributions of the subject. This claim has great relevance to the questions of whether or not (...) a quantum treatment of the molecule can derive structure without recourse to any approximation, and the possible existence of emergence and downward causation. The answer to the first question is in the negative, and to the second is that agnosticism is the only possible attitude to have toward this problem. We are creatures who can only imagine what is going on by observing phenomena. All that is accessible to us is the modal structure of the model. The causal structure of the real system is not. From the same point of view and taking the concept of the affordance into account, the adequacy of the concept of molecular structure will be argued. The point is to specify what objects the concept can legitimately be applied to. Also briefly discussed in relation to shape and structure is the idea that molecular chirality might be a probe to reveal the nature of space. (shrink)

Since molecules are inaccessible to immediate observation, our conception of the molecule is brought about by transdiction which entails invention of various transcendental ideas. In organic chemistry we think that molecules consist of atoms, bonds, functional groups, etc. This is, however, not the unique description of the molecule as is shown by quantum mechanical calculations, for example. Then, what description represents the real molecule? Before asking this question, we have to consider what the real molecule is in the first place. (...) Constructive realism distinguishes our cognitive world and the world just given, and claims that we should accept the former as reality. Understanding our cognitive world is possible only through construction of micro-worlds. Atoms, bonds, functional groups, etc., are micro-worlds which make sense in a theoretical framework of organic chemistry. In this study we translate a micro-world to an affordance and paraphrase it as a context-relative dispositional attribute of an {agent-world} complex. Then, we can understand that it is what we take as molecular structure, not what might be out there to be found, that we should accept as reality. Excluding metaphysical fictions from scientific arguments, constructive realism makes science a meaningful activity. Constructive realism claims that, for getting knowledge of the world, we have to integrate information into our own linguistic frame, i.e., to translate it. Strangification is a technique of intentionally taking an accepted proposition out of one scientific system and putting it into a completely different context. As is the case with translation, strangification brings about deeper understanding of philosophical as well as scientific grounds on which the proposition system holds. We apply this method to molecular structure and reveal that it is an ingenious model to describe molecular behavior in multi-molecular systems with strong interactions between molecules. Information provided by strangification is essential to claim the legitimacy of a proposition system. As far as strangification is properly applied, relativism is irrelevant to constructive realism. (shrink)

The earliest Chinese record of the maritime relations between India and China can be found in the “History of the Former Han Dynasty” (Chien Han-shu) which covers the period from B.C. 206 to A.D. 23. In its chapter (28b) on geography it is stated that ever since the time of the Emperor Wu (Wu Ti, B.C. 14087) the country called Huang-chih has sent tribute to the Chinese court, which in turn dispatched envoys to this remote country. Huang-chih has been identified (...) by many scholars with Kāñcī (Conjeeveram) on the east coast of South India. It is recorded that there were chief interpreters belonging to the Yellow Gate (the office of eunuchs serving in the palace) who went to sea to buy bright pearls, opaque glasses and other rare articles, taking with them from China gold and various kinds of silk for exchange. (shrink)

In recent years several books by major figures in Japan's modern philosophical tradition have appeared in English, exciting readers by their explorations of the borderlands between philosophy and religion. What has been wanting, however, is a book in a Western language to elucidate the life and thought of Nishida Kitaro, Japan's first philosopher of world stature and the originator of what has come to be called the Kyoto School. No one is more qualified to write such a book than Nishitani (...) Keiji, whose lifetime coincides with the rise and flowering of the Kyoto School and whose own critical contribution to Japanese thought has been so important. _Nishida Kitaro_ is a translation of essays Nishitani wrote about his teacher from 1936 to 1968 and published as a book in 1985. This series of meditations by one master on another provides a remarkable, living portrait of Nishida the person and conveys the enthusiasm he aroused in his students. Examining Nishida's most important work, _An Inquiry into the Good_, Nishitani penetrates to the core of his thought and presents it in language that is a marvel of clarity. (shrink)

In modern German ‘Anschauung’ is translated as intuition. But in Kant’s technical philosophical context, it means an intuition derived from previous visualizations of physical processes in the world of perceptions. The nineteenth century chemists’ predilection for Kantian Anschauung led them to develop an intuitive representation of what exists beyond the bounds of the senses. Molecular structure is one of the illuminating outcomes. (Ochiai 2021, pp. 1–51) This mental habit seems to be dominant among chemists even in the twentieth century, as (...) is illustrated by the electronic theory of organic chemistry and the frontier orbital theory as well. The former assumes that (1) bonds are paired electrons shared by bonded atoms—in fact, electrons in molecules are not localized in bonds; (2) the difference of electronegativities between bonded atoms causes electron drifts—expressed by the curly arrow—that result in bond formation or bond cleavage. The latter focuses on the orbitals that make the greatest contribution to the energy of a system undergoing electron delocalization, while the LCAO method says, as is suggested by the word Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals, molecular orbitals should be constructed from all of the atomic orbitals that have the appropriate symmetry. In other words, every molecular orbital contributes to some extent to the electronic state of a molecule. The curly arrow in the electronic theory and the orbital lobe in the frontier orbital theory illustrate an intuitive character of these theories. Although both theories rely on such simple and qualitative models rather than mathematically rigid quantum mechanical calculations, they are successful in explaining, predicting, and designing chemical reactions. What makes these prima facie intuitive theories so successful? In this study we address this problem from a historical and philosophical as well as scientific point of view. The key to solve this problem is that they are concerned with only bond formation or bond cleavage, in which the localized-bond principle holds. (shrink)

Abstract‘Structure’ is the term whose proper use is exemplified by an expression like ‘the structure of a diesel-engine,’ in which what is referred to is accessible to immediate observation. It is also used figuratively like ‘social structure.’ While unobservable, what is referred to is empirically accessible. By contrast, molecules are neither observable nor empirically accessible. What philosophical grounds enable us to design invisible structure of molecules? Our cognition of objects becomes realized as phenomena when objects are given to our phenomenal (...) fields. (Ochiai, Found Chem 22:77–86, 2020a, Found Chem 22:457–465, 2020b, A philosophical essay on molecular structure, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp 147–174, 2021) A phenomenal field is a pictorial representation of the mind’s self-transcending character and shows the relation between ‘self’ and ‘world.’ Molecular structure becomes realized as an affordance of molecules in a phenomenal field proper to organic chemists. It is a context-sensitive dispositional attribute of an {organic chemist-world} complex. Although designing molecules presupposes molecular structure, the latter is not sufficient for the former to make sense. Molecules must be designable as well. Designing molecules aims to create or modify molecular structure in order to provide compounds with certain chemical and/or physical properties. That is, designable molecules make sense in contexts in which they serve as a means to achieve this purpose and become realized as an affordance. Given that molecular structure and designable molecules are affordances of molecules, the fact that there are contexts in which they make sense provides grounds for conceiving and designing invisible structure of molecules. Heidegger’s arguments in Being and Time about characteristics of the being of beings corroborate our argument that what becomes realized as an affordance exists as what he calls a useful thing for us. (shrink)

We examine the politics of financial crisis response in Japan and the United States. Many existing accounts of Japan's of the 1990s have emphasized Japan-specific factors, such as structural problems, policy errors, and political dysfunction. We argue that Japan may have been subject to a form of first-mover disadvantage. Like innovation in the private sector, developing effective solutions to novel policy problems requires a messy process of discovery, experimentation, and repeated failure. Much as late-industrializing countries adapted the methods and technologies (...) of early developers, second-movers can apply effective policies demonstrated by first-movers in a more targeted, efficient, and rapid manner. We show that the behavior of Japan and the United States during their respective financial crises is broadly consistent with this theory. In addition, policy adoption in the United States most clearly reflected lessons from Japan in areas where the lessons were considered clear and implementation was less politicized. (shrink)

Al-Kind la littcrivant sur les mcouverte des trcrivit sur ce sujet a survditions et des traductions de l'un et l'autre textes, ainsi que les deux traductions latines faites du chapitre dans Les quarantes chapitres et des commentaires de la proce par al-Kindī.

Tool use is a central topic in research on cognitive evolution and behavioral ecology in non-human animals. Originally thought to be a uniquely human phenomenon, many other species have been observed making and using tools for a variety of purposes, starting with Goodall’s groundbreaking work with chimpanzees in Gombe. Despite the frequent attention and great research interest in animal tool use, and ubiquity of the behavior, we argue here that chewing sticks by dogs should be included as a case of (...) tool use. We discuss alternate possible explanations and then propose several testable predictions regarding this hypothesis. We suggest that tool use may be more common than is often assumed and that many cases of animal tool use may be overlooked. (shrink)

Selected writings from the most influential texts of the samurai era—in a pocket-size edition. The samurai of Japan, who were the country's military elite from medieval times to the end of the nineteenth century, were synonmous with valor, honor, and martial arts prowess. Their strict adherence to the code of bushido ("the way of the warrior"), chivalry, and honor in fighting to the death continues to capture the imagination of people today, inspiring authors, filmmakers, and artists. The Pocket Samurai contains (...) the essential writings of the era by the most esteemed samurai and philosophers of the age, including the iconic Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings; Yamamoto Tsunetomo, author of Hagakure, the best-known explication of the samurai code; Takuan Soho, the Zen priest and adviser to samurai; Yagyu Munenori, whose The Life-Giving Sword describes a deeply spiritual approach to sword fighting; and others. (shrink)

Interventions performed on a pregnant woman's body can affect the fetus in multiple ways. Such effects can be harmful to beneficial to the fetus. Unfortunately, the effects of new drugs and compoun...