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)

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)

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)

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)

This study analyzed the effects of aging on post-error behavioral adjustments from the perspective of cognitive control. A modified error awareness task was administered to young and older adults. In this task, two buttons were placed on the left and right sides in front of the participants, who were instructed to use the right button to perform a go/no-go task, and were notified if they made an error. There were three experimental conditions : participants had to push the right button (...) once in Condition A and twice in Condition B and C when a go-stimulus was presented. Conversely, participants were asked to withhold their response when a no-go stimulus was presented. Response inhibition differed depending on the experimental condition. The participants were asked to push the left button as quickly as possible when an error occurred. The results showed relatively longer reaction times to sudden errors among older adults compared with young adults. Furthermore, the difference in the error responses strongly influenced older adults’ response time after an error. These results suggest that the shift from proactive to reactive control may significantly influence post-error behavioral adjustments in older adults. (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)

中国・南宋の朱熹の思想、朱子学は江戸時代においていかなる機能を果たしたのか―。受容とともに新たな思考が生まれてゆくさまは、従来の体制教学という理解を一面的なものとせずにはいない。とりわけ、朱子学と反朱 子学の応酬は結果としてこの時代の思想表現を豊かなものにし、日本の近代化への足掛かりをも作った。本書では、朱子学の骨格から江戸時代における展開、近代化に及ぼした作用までを論じ、日本近世の知的状況を眺望す る。.

壊滅した街の瓦礫の中で人びとは、前日までと同じように分けあい、助けあった。非常時にも日常の倫理を喪わない、日本人の心性の源泉を近世の儒学思想に求め、明日への生き方を確かめる。.

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)

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)

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)

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)

文明批評家・土田杏村の初期の論説の他、多岐にわたる主題をとおして、人文科学の黎明を考究した画期的な日本思想史研究。.

El texto refuta que el primer documento escrito en el que se encuentra el apelativo «escuela de Kioto» corresponda al artículo que escribiera Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) publicado en 1932 con el título «La filosofía de la escuela de Kioto». Se demuestra que fue otro pensador, Tsuchida Kyōson (1891-1934), quien en su obra Pensamiento contemporáneo de Japón y China, escrita originariamente en japonés en el año 1926 y, luego, en inglés, 1927, engloba a Nishida y Tanabe bajo el nombre «escuela (...) de Kioto», por lo tanto, años antes del texto tosakaniano. La inclusión de esta fuente desapercibida se suma al asunto sobre la significación histórica de la designación de la «escuela» en vida de sus miembros más célebres, además de revelar las confluencias en ciertos juicios críticos que Tsuchida y Tosaka hicieran sobre las ideas y sistemas de los filósofos de Kioto. Capítulo de libro: Crespín Perales, Montserrat, "El eslabón desapercibido. La denominación "escuela de Kioto" en la obra de Tsuchida Kyoson (1891-1934), Pensamiento contemporáneo de Japón y China (1926, 1927)", en Crespín Perales, Montserrat, y Wirtz, Fernando (eds.), Después de la nada. Dialéctica e ideología en la filosofía japonesa contemporánea, pp. 41-86. (shrink)