近世後期、日本最古の文献である『古事記』は単なる過去ではなくなり、書かれた時代と「同時的」となって、“神話”であることに対峙する書物となった―本居宣長の前後に登場した田安宗武・上田秋成・橘守部・富士谷 御杖らの記紀解釈を集積体として読み解き、人間と神々のコスモロジーを穿つ。.

Drawing on philosophy, history, and critical theory, Unconditional Life introduces a new perspective on the significance of post-war international law developments. The book examines the public discourse regarding technological risk in World War II texts of unconditional surrender, in the World Trade Organisation's EC-Biotech dispute, and in the International Court of Justices' Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion. The volume describes international law in terms of its management of, and relation to, the risks associated with technological innovation in war and in trade. (...) It proposes that international law, too, is itself a kind of technology: one intended to manage the material and existential risks inherent in the creation of a new international, postcolonial, political community emerging out of the Second World War. Members of this community are imagined to possess a universal quality: humanness, which itself is underscored by a power of invention. Yoriko Otomo demonstrates how international lawyers' inability to adjudicate questions of large-scale technological risk is due to the competing and intractable claims of international law.Offering a feminist analysis of the political economy that has created this crisis of governance, the book provides a way of understanding the structural inequities that will need to be addressed if international law is to remain a relevant forum for the adjudication of war and trade into the 21st century. (shrink)

The turn of the millennium has witnessed an extraordinary paradox—one identified by Jacques Derrida as a simultaneous increase in violence against nonhuman animals and compassion toward them. This article turns to critical legal theory as well as to recent work by continental philosophers on the human/animal distinction in order to make sense of the ways the paradox manifests in law, arguing that so-called animal welfare laws that appear to be politically progressive are, in fact, iterations of the very violence they (...) purport to redress. What legislation designates as “animal” has neither language nor a recognized image, which not only renders this singular object of law voiceless but also denies that object access to any experience of death, and thus, to life. Through a deconstruction of recently enacted Japanese “animal welfare” legislation, this article proposes that the inability of the legislator to think the animal as having a relation to death belies a deeper struggle at the heart of law itself, to constitute its subjects through language. (shrink)

It is often argued that no local common cause models of EPR correlation exist. However, Szabó and Rédei pointed out that such arguments have the tacit assumption that plural correlations have the same common causes. Furthermore, Szabó showed that for EPR correlation a local common cause model in his sense exists. One of his requirements is that common cause events are statistically independent of apparatus settings on each side. However, as Szabó knows, to meet this requirement does not entail that (...) different combinations of common cause events (e.g. meet and join in lattice-theoretic terminology) are statistically independent of measurement settings. This further condition is formulated in two ways. First, the apparatus settings are completely independent of such combinations. Second, the apparatus settings on each side are independent of such combinations. Does a common cause model which meets the former and the latter respectively exist? This problem is considered. In particular, the latter version is Szabó’s and Rédei’s open problem. Negative answers are given to both versions. (shrink)

Some researchers argued that in the non-existence proof of hidden variables, the existence of a common common-cause of multiple correlations is tacitly assumed and that the assumption is unreasonably strong. According to their idea, it is sufficient if the separate common-cause of each correlation exists. However, for such an idea, various no-go results are already known. Recently, Higashi showed that there exists no local separate common-cause model for the correlations that appear in Hardy’s famous argument. In this paper, I (...) give another simple and suggestive proof of the same content. First, I will show that there exists no local common common-cause model of the correlations that appear in Hardy’s argument. Second, taking the proof as a hint, following almost the same steps, I will show the non-existence of a local separate common-cause model for those correlations. Finally, based on the argument in the previous sections, I will discuss what we can conclude about the issue of reducibility from a separate common-cause model to a common common-cause model. It will be concluded that it is “irreducible” at least by a usual method. (shrink)

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate whether oxygenated hemoglobin generated during a motor imagery task is associated with the motor learning level of the task.MethodsWe included 16 right-handed healthy participants who were trained to perform a ball rotation task. Hemodynamic brain activity was measured using near-infrared spectroscopy to monitor changes in oxy-Hb concentration during the BR MI task. The experimental protocol used a block design, and measurements were performed three times before and after the initial training of the BR task as (...) well as after the final training. The BR count during training was also measured. Furthermore, subjective vividness of MI was evaluated three times after NIRS measurement using the Visual Analog Scale.ResultsThe results showed that the number of BRs increased significantly with training. VAS scores also improved with training. Furthermore, oxy-Hb concentration and the region of interest showed a main effect. An interaction was confirmed, and it was ascertained that the change in oxy-Hb concentrations due to training was different for each ROI. The most significant predictor of subjective MI vividness was supplementary motor area oxy-Hb concentration.DiscussionHemodynamic brain activity during MI tasks may be correlated with task motor learning levels, since significant changes in oxy-Hb concentrations were observed following initial and final training in the SMA. In particular, hemodynamic brain activity in the SMA was suggested to reflect the MI vividness of participants. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate whether the effect of mental practice can be enhanced by providing neurofeedback based on transcranial magnetic stimulation -induced motor evoked potentials. Twenty-four healthy, right-handed subjects were enrolled in this study. The subjects were randomly allocated into two groups: a group that was given correct TMS feedback and a group that was given randomized false TMS feedback. The subjects imagined pushing the switch with just timing, when the target circle overlapped a cross at the center of (...) the computer monitor. In the Real-FB group, feedback was provided to the subjects based on the MEP amplitude measured in the trial immediately preceding motor imagery. In contrast, the subjects of the Sham-FB group were provided with a feedback value that was independent of the MEP amplitude. TMS was applied when the target, moving from right to left, overlapped the cross at the center of the screen, and the MEP amplitude was measured. The MEP was recorded in the right first dorsal interosseous muscle. We evaluated the pre-mental practice and post-mental practice motor performance in both groups. As a result, a significant difference was observed in the percentage change of error values between the Real-FB group and the Sham-FB group. Furthermore, the MEP was significantly different between the groups in the 4th and 5th sets. Therefore, it was suggested that TMS-induced MEP-based neurofeedback might enhance the effect of mental practice. (shrink)

西洋近代を経験した東アジア各国はいかに固有の哲学を生み出しそして今どんな〈世界哲学〉の構想が可能なのか。国際共同研究の成果。.

東アジアの朱子後継者のなかで日本的な朱子学、あるいは朱子学の日本化を成し遂げたという山崎闇斎。彼を筆頭にする崎門学派の理気心性論の言説をとくに朝鮮の李退渓との比較において東アジアの近世思想史のなかに再 定位する。.

To be logical is to be faithful to reasoning and trust the universality of reason. Given this, to be philosophically East Asian and to be fundamentally logical amount to the same attitude—this is the sole dictum of East Asian philosophy, which has been validated by both Kyoto School and New Confucian philosophers. I argue that this dictum does not contradict with their keen intuition or sensitivity for that which are not grasped by means of formal languages.

東アジアの近代知識人たちは、西洋思想史の不滅の古典であるカント哲学をどのように受容し、解釈し、批判してきたか。植民地統治と戦争・革命の歴史のなかで、日本・韓国・中国・台湾の思想界がカントを翻訳紹介して いった歴史的文脈とその政治的意味、さらには相互的な影響関係を、各国の第一線の研究者たちが跡づける国際共同研究の成果。.

East Asia has nurtured an intellectual tradition that includes Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, whose richness is arguably compared with ancient Greek. Yet, this region has repeatedly been said to have "no philosophy”—by occidental philosophers whose name value surpasses any of the eastern thinkers. Is this because of the deficiency of East Asian tradition? Or is it due to “our” ignorance? My answer is: both. I argue that modern East Asian philosophy was an attempt to recognize the deficiency and develop the (...) insight of intellectual tradition in order to make philosophical contribution with a focus on the onto-topological constitution of metaphysics. Exemplary are the Kyoto school and the New Confucians, but I show how their attempt has been misunderstood due to the lack of communication among contemporary East Asian philosophers. (shrink)