午夜剧场

My recently published book examines Fukuzawa's concepts of jitsugaku (science), utility, and freedom. While keeping Edo-period thought in mind, it focuses on Mill—whom Fukuzawa praised for contributing to the global public interest—and considers intellectual connections with Wayland, Guizot, Buckle, and Spencer. It is an exploration of what Fukuzawa called "living two lives in one body." It is well known that "jitsugaku (science)" refers to science. In terms of political science, it is a matter of establishing political science as a science. After the war, Masao Maruyama published a famous essay conscious of the helplessness of pre-war political science; however, this book addresses Fukuzawa's appeal for the necessity of political science as a science, which Maruyama, a Fukuzawa scholar, did not point out. Fukuzawa recognized Confucianism as political science and Confucian scholars as political commentators. This study verifies how he attempted to liberate political science from political discourse by dividing the roles of scholars as practitioners of science and politicians as practitioners of art, while reading Mill's logic and other works. In history, Fukuzawa also sought to establish scientific validity by introducing the theories of remote and proximate causes and statistics from Buckle, a follower of Mill. Reading Mill's theory of utility is beneficial for understanding Fukuzawa's utilitarianism. Since I have included plates of some of Fukuzawa's handwritten notes, readers can experience the dialogue between Fukuzawa and Mill firsthand, providing an opportunity to reflect on the idea that "competing for profit was forbidden by the ancients, but to compete for profit is to compete for reason." Thus, I reconsidered the independence of the individual and the independence of the nation from the perspective of freedom.

The independence of the individual was historically learned from Guizot, a point also noted by the great writer Goethe. While interesting, it seems that theoretically, in addition to Wayland, Fukuzawa gained conviction from Mill's theory of individuality. At the national level, I brought to the surface whether Mill's foreign policy theory—related to both theories of civilization and imperialism—could serve as a logical basis for considering Fukuzawa's discourse on Ryukyu, Ezochi, Taiwan, and Korea. This is also an essay verifying how Fukuzawa developed Mill's theory of nationality, which he considered a principle. I would be honored if my book could serve as a starting point for reconsidering how Fukuzawa understood Western thought, including traditional thought, even if the scope of intellectual sources is limited. Additionally, I believe comparing the calligraphy of Fukuzawa's marginalia in the illustrations will be of interest.

Toshimitsu Anzai

午夜剧场 Press

278 pages, 2,640 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.