午夜剧场

For the first time, the title of this book turned out exactly as the author intended. Even though the editor who read the manuscript felt certain about the quality of the work, they seemed unable to come up with a title that would attract readers. I am a little surprised because, until now, the author's intentions had been rejected out of hand. Apparently, the quality is different from my previous works.

By the way, it can be said that the first thing anyone imagines when they hear the word "I" is "themselves." However, there are as many "I"s as there are people. I think that, unexpectedly, few people have ever thought deeply about that fact.

In other words, "I" means a specific individual, but at the same time, it is a universal (common) word for everything that can say "I." In philosophy, this universal meaning is called "personality" or "persona."

The reason Europe made individual dignity (human rights) the starting point of democracy in the modern era was due to the ideological deepening of "I" through medieval theology from this perspective.

If there is an important contribution to society that can only be made through steady philosophical research, it is, above all, to clarify that differences in the surface of "words" do not necessarily mean differences in meaning.

By the way, when "I" as an ordinary person thinks about things, "I" becomes "we" to think. Therefore, "I" as a member of society is no longer the true "I." And when the ideological power of penetration possessed by society becomes too strong for the individual, the true "I" is lost from among the people, and the human power of individuals is lost.

The reason why "I" is being questioned in various forms now is probably because the present age is precisely an era of crisis for the "I." In medieval Europe, the ideological dominance of the Christian Church over individuals was, of course, significant. And the speculation of the "individual" to counter it was debated among theologians as the doctrine of the Trinity (theory of persona) and intuitive cognition versus abstract cognition.

I believe that the European Middle Ages should not be placed "beyond history," but is an ideological endeavor that must be learned precisely now.

Yagi Yuji

Shunjusha

320 pages, 3,080 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time this magazine was published.