comes from the Greek o o ( technologia ), which in turn derives from ( technê ), meaning ‘art’ or ‘technique’, and o ( logos ). Modern technology has reached its present advanced level thanks to the pursuit of ever greater efficiency. In other words, technology has achieved its present level of development by changing from the quest for techniques grounded in o to a form of engineering that is devoid of o and merely pursues efficiency. We must not overlook (...) the great danger in this sort of technology. Technology advancing radically and transformed into engineering devoid of o cannot perceive its raison d’être and the meaning of its tasks from the perspective of the overall quest for knowledge; as a result, the process of technological development hurtles ahead blindly without a normal sense of balance. The effects on human society are immense. At this juncture we must return to the spirit of Greek o o and urgently rebuild a technology grounded in awareness of o as the wellspring of all knowledge. This is a task that we must address without delay in order to avoid the destruction of humankind. Key Words: applied ethics • logos • technologia • wellspring of technology. (shrink)

この世界とは何か、を説明しようとする時、意識するとしないとにかかわらず、思い浮かべ、考えざるを得ない問いがある。それは、「人間とは何か」「国家とは何か」「国際関係とは何か」という3つの問いである。これ らの問いが織りなす「世界のできあがり方」の構造を、本書は「自我・国家・国際関係」と呼ぶ。現在も世界の人々を拘束し続ける、この認識論的機制の近代日本における形成過程を、明治末から昭和前半期に活躍した哲学 史家、朝永三十郎の「文脈設定者」としての思想的苦闘から描き出す。「国際関係とは何か」という、国際関係研究の根源への問いを問うには、世界国家の可能性を封じ込めた瞬間を把捉しなければならない。カントの『永 遠平和のために』の単なる解説書とされてきた朝永の『カントの平和論』における、「国際」と「国家」の矛盾、という議論に、その瞬間は埋蔵されていたのである。学問領域を横断し、理論と歴史、思想と実証を交錯させ て根源への問いへ挑み、21世紀の世界の見方、考え方を広く問いかける。.

This essay is an overview of the intellectual itinerary of the Japanese philosopher Kuki Shūzō (1888-1941). Kuki first came to the attention of Western readers in Heidegger's A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer. After correcting the record on Kuki with regards to this famous piece, the essay turns to the work that Heidegger and the Japanese Inquirer were discussing, namely, The Structure of Iki. The essay discusses both the background and basic arguments of this work. The (...) essay then expands on Kuki's Western reception, indicating that his thinking evolved beyond his early work with the phenomenon of iki. His later thinking concerns the problem of contingency and the essay concludes with a discussion of his late work, The Problem of Contingency. The essay reviews Kuki's thinking as a whole in order to develop a sense of his hermeneutics. (shrink)

One of the fundamental issues in visual awareness is how we are able to perceive the scene in front of our eyes on time despite the delay in processing visual information. The prediction theory postulates that our visual system predicts the future to compensate for such delays. On the other hand, the postdiction theory postulates that our visual awareness is inevitably a delayed product. In the present study we used flash-lag paradigms in motion and color domains and examined how the (...) perception of visual information at the time of flash is influenced by prior and subsequent visual events. We found that both types of event additively influence the perception of the present visual image, suggesting that our visual awareness results from joint contribution of predictive and postdictive mechanisms. (shrink)

『精神現象掌』的全段階比扣、「感覺怯「契機反復芒才、「感性怯、「精神」仿現象口有仿道程的全体是構成心志「工夭。前者怯「推論」構造橙色運動的論理的拉機能守，後者怯、的運動力可考己、言古法拉形態是取毛主芒 的原本的放質料場所可怎。己的區別乙基于主芒『精神現象字』仿敘述分析寸毛主、「共通感賞」仿云統的拉理解力可大芒〈愛才月。非共通仿共通感貨主怯、絕灼的異他性老含甘共同体拉拉、仿共通感覺、己才倍、『精神現象 字』的宗教仿段階心惰熱主意志才包合非共通的共通又主深化才謊耳其弓之己。神仿死的感情，仿神色人色的、旬件又站、大秉弘教、多悲三哲竿的』乙深〈通匕言文本丐。 Dans toutes les étapes de la Phénoménologie de l' esprit, la sensibilité est répétée comme « moment », et le sensible est un « élément » qui constitue le cheminement total du processus du phénomène de I' « esprit ». La première est une fonction logique du mouvement ayant une structure « deductive ». Le second est la matière originale et le lieu lorsque ce mouvement prend ici de multiples formes. Cette distinction a pour effet de changer la compréhension (...) traditionnelle du sens commun. Le sens commun non commun, c'est le sens commun dans la communauté contenant l'Étrangeté absolue. Dans l'étape de la religion de la Phénoménologie de l' esprit, nous pouvons lire ce sens commun non commun comme s'approfondissent dans le pathos commun non commun qui comporte à la fois la passion et la volonté. On peut affirmer que le pathos entre Dieu comme sentiment de Sa mort et l'homme est philosophiquement lié à la compassion dont parle le bouddhisme du Grand Véhicule. In all the stages of the Phenomenology of the spirit, the sensibility is repeated as « moment », and the sensitive is an « element » which constitutes the total progress of the process of the phenomenon of the « spirit ». The first is a logical function of the movement having a « deductive » structure. The second is the original material and the place when this movement here takes multiple forms. If we analyze the description of the Phenomenology of the spirit by resting itself on this distinction, it is the traditional understanding of the « common sense » that will largely be changed. The non-common common sense is the common sense in the community containing the absolute Strangeness. In the stage of the religion of the Phenomenology of the spirit, we can read this common sense non-common as deepening in the common pathos not common which contains both passion and will. We can assert that the pathos between God as feeling of His death and man is philosophically connected to the condolence which the Buddhism of the Big Vehicle refers to. (shrink)

Nature and civilization are often regarded in opposition to each other. However, civilization employs technologies and is based on laws of nature. Also, the historical world is a result of the development of the natural world. An “anti-nature” must thus be contained somewhere within nature. The idea of “ anti-nature ” is neither alien to the Eastern nor to the Western traditional concepts of nature. The philosophy of Lao Zi never embraces mere naturalism. Lao Zi has observed that things in (...) the world are not always “ so on their own ” but rather in the mode of anti-nature. A nti-nature in nature itself does not become expressive until Christian theology, in which the origin of evil is reflected upon. The last part of the paper begins with one Buddhist thought expressed in the Diamond Sutra: “The world is not the world that is named the world.” Through naming of a thing, this thing is objectified or substantialized, and an objectified thing is not the thing itself. This self is “ śūnya ”, a non-world, which is what the world is. This non-world (as well nature) is first and foremost concealed by ego-consciousness that tends to objectify the things. E go-consciousness as this anti-nature tends to conceal this non-nature, and begins to act in the form of technology. The radical way of solving the problems caused by this “anti-nature” must begin with gaining an insight into the nature of ourselves as well as the nature of technology. (shrink)

Environmental, physiological, and pathological stimuli induce the misfolding of proteins, which results in the formation of aggregates and amyloid fibrils. To cope with proteotoxic stress, cells are equipped with adaptive mechanisms that are accompanied by changes in gene expression. The evolutionarily conserved mechanism called the heat shock response is characterized by the induction of a set of heat shock proteins (HSPs), and is mainly regulated by heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1) in mammals. We herein introduce the mechanisms by which (...) HSF1 tightly controls the transcription of HSP genes via the regulation of pre‐initiation complex recruitment in their promoters under proteotoxic stress. These mechanisms involve the stress‐induced regulation of HSF1‐transcription complex formation with a number of coactivators, changes in chromatin states, and the formation of phase‐separated condensates through post‐translational modifications. (shrink)

In this article, the author begins by noticing a statistical fact: from the seven Japanese translations of Being and Time, in five cases the German word Sein has been translated as sonzai, and in two cases as u. This fact invites the author to a discussion about the Japanese understanding of “Being”, which is developed on three levels: the question of language, the question of historical-cultural world, and the question of the “European”, understood as a Western principle, depictingthis “Abend-land” as (...) a region threatened by night. (shrink)

Modeling legal argumentation is one of the most important research in AI and Law, and a lot of models have been proposed. However, most research has not treated value judgement and debate. In this paper, we introduce a legal reasoning model which covers various aspects of legalreasoning such as making argument, selecting argument and debate.Furthermore, we present how criminal law is described and reasoned inthis model.

In the near future, our life will normally be surrounded with fairly complicated artifacts, enabled by the autonomous robot and brain–machine interface technologies. In this paper, we argue that what we call the responsibility flaw problem and the inappropriate use problem need to be overcome in order for us to benefit from complicated artifacts. In order to solve these problems, we propose an approach to endowing artifacts with an ability of socially communicating with other agents based on the artifact-as-a-half-mirror metaphor. (...) The idea is to have future artifacts behave according to the hybrid intention composed of the owner’s intention and the social rules. We outline the approach and discuss its feasibility together with preliminary work. (shrink)

This study presents and discusses the essential “nearness” and “farness” between Nishitani philosophy and Nishida philosophy, where such “nearness” and “farness” are not meant to be words that simply express the relative positions in which Nishida and Nishitani philosophy stand with respect to each other, but present the internal structure of the very problems at the core of both. Taking as a clue, Nishitani’s words, “nearer to me than I am to myself,” we examine these philosophies by situating their interpretations (...) of Eckhart as an axis for our considerations and then introducing their understandings of an expression from Daitō Kokushi 大燈国師. In conclusion, we consider the problems remaining for both. While it was Nishida philosophy that made it possible to take on the foundation of the history of philosophy as a problem, it would be left to Nishitani to actually carry this out. In turn, while Nishitani presents a criticism of the “intellect,” we must speak of the elucidation of logic as an undeveloped problem left within Nishitani philosophy. (shrink)

Prediction is essential for the efficiency of many cognitive processes; however, this process is not always perfect. Predictive coding theory suggests that the brain generates and updates a prediction to respond to an upcoming event. Although an electrophysiological index of prediction, the stimulus preceding negativity, has been reported, it remains unknown whether the SPN reflects the prediction accuracy, or whether it is associated with the prediction error, which corresponds to a mismatch between a prediction and an actual input. Thus, the (...) present study aimed to investigate this question using electroencephalography. Participants were asked to predict the original pictures from pictures that had undergone different levels of pixelation. The SPN amplitude was affected by the level of pixelation and correlated with the subjective evaluation of the prediction accuracy. Furthermore, late positive components were negatively correlated with SPN. These results suggest that the amplitude of SPN reflects the prediction accuracy; more accurate prediction increases the SPN and reduces the prediction error, resulting in reduced LPC amplitudes. (shrink)

This work is a partial translation of Watsuji’s major systematic work, Ethics originally published in three volumes, in 1937, 1942, and 1949. The original work comprises an introduction and four chapters, and the translation presents the Introduction as Part 1, “Introductory Essays”; chapter 1 as Part 2, “The Fundamental Structure of Human Existence”; and chapter 2 as Part 3, “The Spatio-Temporal Structure of Human Being.” Chapters 3 and 4 in the original work, which are left untranslated, are titled respectively “Ethical (...) Organizations” and “Historico-Climate Structure of Human Existence.” According to the systemic plan of Watsuji, ethics, which is practically identical with the whole of philosophy, should not be limited to the consideration of the principles of morality, but should contain the investigation of various human communities, and reflection on the historical movements in which these communities have been formed. In other words, ethics should also contain social philosophy and the philosophy of history. (shrink)

A challenge in human genome research is how to describe the populations being studied. The use of improper and/or imprecise terms has the potential to both generate and reinforce prejudices and to diminish the clinical value of the research. The issue of population descriptors has not attracted enough academic attention outside North America and Europe. In January 2012, we held a two-day workshop, the first of its kind in Japan, to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars in the humanities, social (...) sciences, medical sciences, and genetics to begin an ongoing discussion of the social and ethical issues associated with population descriptors. (shrink)

Objective: To clarify whether long time constant is useful for detecting the after-slow activity of epileptiform discharges : sharp waves and spikes and for differentiating EDs from sharp transients.Methods: We employed 68 after-slow activities preceded by 32 EDs and 36 Sts from 52 patients with partial and generalized epilepsy defined by visual inspection. High-frequency activity associated with the apical component of EDs and Sts was also investigated to endorse two groups. After separating nine Sts that were labeled by visual inspection (...) but did not fulfill the amplitude criteria for after-slow of Sts, 59 activities were analyzed about the total area of after-slow under three TCs.Results: Compared to Sts, HFA was found significantly more with the apical component of EDs. The total area of after-slow in all 32 EDs under TC 2 s was significantly larger than those under TC 0.3 s and 0.1 s. Conversely, no significant differences were observed in the same parameter of 27 Sts among the three different TCs. Regarding separated nine Sts, the total area of after-slow showed a similar tendency to that of 27 Sts under three different TCs.Significance: These results suggest that long TC could be useful for selectively endorsing after-slow of EDs and differentiating EDs from Sts. These findings are concordant with the results of the HFA analysis. Visual inspection is also equally good as the total area of after-slow analysis. (shrink)

Scientists in anthropology, geography, and other fields within social sciences and humanities have long suggested that the environments in which people live deeply influence their cultural value systems and practices. Shota Shibasaki, Ryosuke Nakadai, and Yo Nakawake have built on this idea, demonstrating that local ecological characteristics shape the appearance of trickster animals in folklore. Based on their finding and the SM3D (Serendipity-Mindsponge-3D) knowledge management framework, we discuss how the individuals’ or groups’ ability to create cultural products depends (...) on the availability and accessibility of information from the surrounding environment. Due to biodiversity loss and climate change, such valuable resources for cultural creativity have been diminished. Thus, it is crucial to adopt biodiversity preservation and climate action as fundamental values of a progressive and humane culture. Only then can we continue to preserve and enhance the creative cultural capacity of society. (shrink)

Dans la philosophie japonaise, le temps, traditionnellement, n’a jamais été pensé comme séparé de l’espace. Plutôt que de concevoir l’espace-temps de manière abstraite, elle a toujours eu tendance à penser l’expérience d’une temporalité indissociable de la spatialité, une « temporalité spatiale ». À partir de deux créations conceptuelles japonaises, l’une médiévale et l’autre contemporaine, l’une ontologico-existentielle et l’autre esthétique, uji et kire respectivement, nous explorerons deux façons d’exprimer la nature vivante du temps à partir du flux du devenir, celles de (...) Dōgen Kigen et Ōhashi Ryōsuke. Elles ne traitent pas le temps comme une succession d’instants ou comme le récipient neutre du flux des événements, mais comme le cours de la vie appréhendé à partir d’une situation et d’un moment spécifiques. (shrink)

Japanese Hermeneutics provides a forum for the most current international debates on the role played by interpretative models in the articulation of cultural discourses on Japan. It presents the thinking of esteemed Western philosophers, aestheticians, and art and literary historians, and introduces to English-reading audiences some of Japan's most distinguished scholars, whose work has received limited or no exposure in the United States. In the first part, "Hermeneutics and Japan," contributors examine the difficulties inherent in articulating "otherness" without falling into (...) the trap of essentialization and while relying on Western epistemology for explanation and interpretation. In the second part, "Japan's Aesthetic Hermeneutics," they explore the role of aesthetics in shaping discourses on art and nature in Japan. The essays in the final section of the book, "Japan's Literary Hermeneutics," rethink the notion of "Japanese literature" in light of recent findings on the ideological implications of canon formations and transformations within Japan's prominent literary circles. Contributors: Amagasaki Akira, Haga Toru, Hamashita Masahiro, Inaga Shigemi, Kambayashi Tsunemichi, Thomas LaMarre, John C. Maraldo, Michael F. Marra, Mark Meli, Ohashi Ryosuke, Otabe Tanehisa, Graham Parkes, J. Thomas Rimer, Sasaki Ken'ichi, Haruo Shirane, Suzuki Sadami, Stefan Tanaka, Gianni Vattimo. (shrink)

At the core of Félix Guattari’s ethico-aesthetic paradigm is a conception of subjectivity that somehow relies upon the notion of animism. Even though this apparently Romantic return to animism may seem vague and perhaps even naive, it forms the very framework that Guattari asks us to pass through, at least provisionally, in order to fully grasp his last project. I will therefore attempt to demystify this important concept theoretically before showing how the aesthetic machines of Japanese contemporary art – and (...) more specifically, the conceptual art of Yoko Ono – stage one key aspect of Guattari’s animism: machinic heterogenesis. Guattari travelled to Japan many times in the years leading up to the publication of Chaosmosis and Japanese contemporary art allowed him to bolster some of its theoretical claims with concrete examples. I will argue that it is through the lens of Japanese contemporary art that Guattari’s ethico-aesthetic paradigm might propel us beyond the old-guard strategies of modernism. Just as we are asked to pass through a certain notion of animism to understand the relational onto-logic of Chaosmosis, Japanese contemporary art itself demands a similar conceptual framework in order to be disappropriated from an all-too-Western canon. To this end, I supplement Guattari’s work with speculative readings of Japanese philosophy. (shrink)