In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School, and Co-ProsperityMichiko YusaPolitical Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School, and Co-Prosperity. By Christopher S. Goto-Jones. London and New York: Routledge, 2005. Pp. 192. Hardcover $105.00.If it is the case that scholars who engage the Kyoto School philosophy in any serious manner may risk their reputation by "being tarred with the brush of fascism" (p. 4), then Christopher (...) Goto-Jones is certainly courageous to set out to redress the predicament that Nishida Kitarō 's thought (Nishida tetsugaku) is apparently in. Indeed, Goto-Jones' effort is to be highly commended. He contends that Nishida tetsugaku "ought to have been liberated from the oppression of the ultra-nationalist orthodoxy of wartime Japan" by "the allied victory," but instead it has been "oppressed under the new weight of post-war historiography" (p. 2). The author hopes to help change the present-day academic environment that still condemns Nishida tetsugaku or Kyoto School philosophy for complicity with the agenda of fascists and ultranationalists, a formidable force in Japan from the mid-1930s through the end of the Pacific War.Believing that Nishida tetsugaku qua political philosophy should gain its rightful place in the academic discourse, Goto-Jones embarks on this task. The way to liberate Nishida tetsugaku, he suggests, is to avoid the approach taken by apologists whose arguments, ultimately "unconvincing," were "not finally rooted in Nishida's philosophy but in his diaries and correspondence" (p. 4). He hopes to bring out the "cultural and political pluralism" that is at the heart of Nishida's political philosophy and to demonstrate that the contribution of Nishida's thought is to "relativize the political conceptualizations of Western philosophy" (p. 5). The strategy is to "re-politicize" Nishida tetsugaku and allow his (political) texts to speak for themselves. Goto-Jones contends that Nishida's political philosophy, properly understood, is neither ultranationalism nor liberalism, but "may be termed radical liberalism" (p. 137 n. 11).In chapter 2, the author proposes to situate Nishida's political thought "in the context of some of its earlier formulations," just as "[m]uch of Western political philosophy partakes in conversations initiated by the Greeks" (p. 28). He therefore begins with the seventeen-article constitution of Prince Shōtoku as the Ur-official text, and then turns his attention to the Japanese Buddhist and Confucian traditions. En route, Goto-Jones tries to connect such ideas as the honji suijaku theory with Nishida's dialectics, or the Tendai meditation practice of ichinen sanzen with the ideology of hakkō ichiu. Whether this approach clarifies Nishida's thought or adds further complications is left to the judgment of the reader. [End Page 361]Contrary to the view that Nishida underwent a "turn" in the early 1930s, Goto- Jones attempts to prove in chapters 3 and 4 that Nishida's political philosophy remained consistent throughout his life. To demonstrate this point, he examines the several theories of good discussed by Nishida in part 3 of Zen no kenkyū (An inquiry into the good), written ca. 1906, and the 1937 lecture "Rekishiteki shintai" (Historical body). The author's evidence to sustain his argument seems to rest on Nishida's personal protest against the intervention of the state in the affairs of education, as well as his lament that his thought was never properly understood.Because the scope of the book extends to Nishida's one-time students (such as Tosaka Jun, Miki Kiyoshi, Kōsaka Masaaki, Kōyama Iwao, and Nishitani Keiji as well as Harada Kumao and Kido Kōichi)1 and his colleagues (such as Tanabe Hajime and Watsuji Tetsurō ), to undertake this project Goto-Jones took on the weighty task of studying biographical information about Nishida and his colleagues as well as their vastly varying political approaches. The author's project is far more serious than a mere debate on the semantics of, for instance, the word "liberal," which, when applied to Nishida-and I tend to agree with him here-is "inappropriate and ahistor-ical" (p. 7), or the term "universal(ism)," which seems to have become another term of contention by sheer chance.The fact that... (shrink)

Parable is a literary genre. The knowledge of a literary parable makes us cognizant of the use of a technique used by the great philosophers to make known or transfer new ideas by making analogies or putting on one side a known fact to communicate a new or something incomprehensible. Jesus used the parable constantly, in his preaching and in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The prevailing model for encouraging innovation based on patents and market-oriented raises at least two economic and ethical issues: it imposes barriers on individuals and developing countries governments' access to medicines by defining prices that do not match their income, and the unavailability of new or appropriate products to address the health problems of these populations. In the last decade, this scenario has undergone some changes due to the emergence of new actors, the contribution of aid resources, the introduction to (...) the market of new products against neglected diseases, the development of new governmental healthcare policies and research programs, etc. One example of such initiatives is the Fixed-Dose Artesunate Combination Therapy (FACT) project consortium, which brought together institutions with different natures from both the North and the South, for the development of two antimalarial fixed-dose combinations recommended by the WHO – artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) and artesunate-mefloquine (ASMQ). This paper proposes to describe and analyze the ASMQ consortium, which is the result of a new pharmaceutical development approach, based on a different paradigm – needs-driven instead of market-driven –, collaborative, with strategic participation of institutions from the South, funded by alternative resources (public and philanthropic). Thus, it represents an interesting object of study for bioethical debates on intellectual property and innovation, and its analysis is justified in light of the current debate on ways of stimulating needs-driven pharmaceutical innovation. (shrink)

Expressive activity (1925) -- The standpoint of active intuition (1935) -- Human being (1938).

The activity of the left and right central pattern generators is efficiently coordinated during locomotion. To achieve this coordination, the interplay between the CPG controlling one leg and that controlling another must be present. Previous findings in aquatic vertebrates and mammalians suggest that the alternate activation of the left and right CPGs is mediated by the commissural interneurons crossing the midline of the spinal cord. Especially, V0 commissural interneurons mediate crossed inhibition during the alternative activity of the left and right (...) CPGs. Even in humans, phase-dependent modulation of the crossed afferent inhibition during gait has been reported. Based on those previous findings, crossed inhibition of the CPG in one leg side caused by the activation of the contralateral CPG is a possible mechanism underlying the coordination of the anti-phase rhythmic movement of the legs. It has been hypothesized that the activity of the flexor half center in the CPG inhibits the contralateral flexor half center, but crossed inhibition of the extensor half center is not present because of the existence of the double limb support during gait. Nevertheless, previous findings on the phase-dependent crossed inhibition during anti-phase bilateral movement of the legs are not in line with this hypothesis. For example, extensor activity caused crossed inhibition of the flexor half center during bilateral cycling of the legs. In another study, the ankle extensor was inhibited at the period switching from extension to flexion during anti-phase rhythmic movement of the ankles. In this review article, I provide a critical discussion about crossed inhibition mediating the coordination of the anti-phase bilateral rhythmic movement of the legs. (shrink)

We consider the problem of fair allocation in economies with indivisible goods. Our primary concept is that of an envy-free allocation, that is, an allocation such that no agent would prefer anyone else's bundle to his own. Since there typically is a large set (a continuum) of such allocations, the need arises to identify well-behaved selections from the no-envy solution. First we establish the non-existence of ‘population monotonic’ selections. Then we propose a variety of selections motivated by intuitive considerations of (...) fairness. (shrink)

_An Inquiry into the Good_ represented the foundation of Nishida’s philosophy—reflecting both his deep study of Zen Buddhism and his thorough analysis of Western philosophy—and established its author as the foremost Japanese philosopher of this century. In this important new translation, two scholars—one Japanese and one American—have worked together to present a lucid and accurate rendition of Nishida’s ideas. "The translators do an admirable job of adhering to the cadence of the original while avoiding unidiomatic, verbatim constructions."—John C. (...) Maraldo, _Philosophy East and West_ __ __ "More accurate and critical than the first translation into English of Nishida's earliest book.... An important addition to library collections of twentieth-century philosophy, Japanese intellectual history, and contemporary Buddhist thought."—_Choice_ "A welcome new translation of a work by probably the most original and influential of modern Japanese philosophers."—Hidé Ishiguro, _Times Literary Supplement_ "Undoubtedly the most important work for anyone in the West interested in understanding modern Japanese thought. This work premiered Japanese philosophy as modern but has also shown unusual staying power. In the late twentieth century Japanese thinkers, both religious and secular, insist on its importance and relevance."—William R. La Fleur, University of Pennsylvania. (shrink)

In recent years, ethical questions related to the development of artificial intelligence are being increasingly discussed. However, there has not been enough corresponding increase in the research and development associated with AI technology that incorporates with ethical discussion. We therefore implemented an organic and dynamic tool for use with knowledge base of AI ethics for engineers to promote engineers’ practice of ethical AI design to realize further social values. Here, “organic” means that the tool deals with complex relationships among different (...) AI ethics. “Dynamic” means that the tool dynamically adopts new issues and helps engineers think in their own contexts. Data in the knowledge base of the tool is standardized based on the ethical design theory that consists of an extension of the hierarchical representation of artifacts to understand ethical considerations from the perspective of engineering, and a description method to express the design ideas. In addition, we apply the dynamic knowledge management model called knowledge liquidization and crystallization. To discuss the effects, we introduce three cases: a case for the clarification of differences in the structures among AI ethics and design ideas, a case for the presentation of semantic distance among them, and a case for the recommendation of the scenario paths that allow engineers to seamlessly use AI ethics in their own contexts. We discuss the effectiveness of the tool. We also show the probability that engineers can reconstruct AI ethics as a more practical one with professional ethicists. (shrink)

To become more broadly applicable, positions on AI ethics require perspectives from non-Western regions and cultures such as China and Japan. In this paper, we propose that the addition of the concept of harmony to the discussion on ethical AI would be highly beneficial due to its centrality in East Asian cultures and its applicability to the challenge of designing AI for social good. We first present a synopsis of different definitions of harmony in multiple contexts, such as music and (...) society, which reveals that the concept is, at its core, about well-balanced relationships and appropriate actions which give rise to order, balance, and aesthetically pleasing phenomena. The mediator for these well-balanced relationships isTaktwhich is an ability to act thoughtfully and sensibly according to the specific situation and to put things into proportion and order. We propose that the central challenge of building harmonizing AI is to make intelligent systems tactful and also to design and use them tactfully. For an AI system to become tactful, it needs to be able to have an advanced sensitivity to the specific contexts which it is in and their social and ethical implications and have the capability of approximately inferring the emotional and cognitive states of people with whom it is interacting. (shrink)

dai 1-kan. Zen no kenkyū -- dai 2-kan. Jikaku ni okeru chokkan to hansei -- dai 3-kan. Ishiki no mondai ; Geijutsu to dōtoku -- dai 4-kan. Hataraku mono kara miru mono e -- dai 5-kan. Ippansha no jikakuteki taikei -- dai 6-kan. Mu no jikakuteki gentei -- dai 7-kan. Tetsugaku no konpon mondai ; Tetsugaku no konpon mondai zokuhen -- dai 8-11-kan. Tetsugaku ronbunshū -- dai 12-kan. Zoku Shisaku to taiken ; "Zoku Shisaku to taiken" igo ; Nihon bunka (...) no mondai ; Hoi -- dai 13-kan. Shōhen, nōto -- dai 14-kan. Kōen hikki -- dai 15-kan. Kōgi -- dai 16-kan. Shoki sōkō, nōto hoi -- dai 17-kan. Nikki -- dai 18-kan. Shokanshū -- dai 19-kan. Shokanshū, shin hoi, nenpu, sōmokuroku -- [20] Furoku. (shrink)