This article is the second translation of the preface and first chapter of Hatano Seiichi's Time and Eternity. A full translation of the text, published by Suzuki Ichiro 鈴木一郎 in 1963, is not easily accessible to most readers, while an excellent partial translation by Joseph O'Leary has recently been made accessible to a wider audience through the monumental work, Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook. By providing a short historical introduction to both Hatano's life and works as a great thinker and (...) teacher, this article intends to supplement O'Leary's contribution and therefore enable more readers to gain access to the opening sections of Hatano's Time and Eternity. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Buddhist-Christian Studies 21.1 (2001) 95-99 [Access article in PDF] The Distinction between ego (e) and ego-Self (e/S): Notes on Religious Practice Based upon Buddhist-Christian Dialogue Yagi Seiichi Toin University The Goal of Religious Practice We cannot see the transcendent as an object. Nor is it the case that the transcendent and the human are two separated realities that are united afterwards. When the Self (Christ in me--Gal. 2:19-20) (...) reveals itself to and in the ego (Gal. 1:16), the ego becomes aware of the Self, which is divine--human or transcendent--immanent. This is called enlightenment.In enlightenment, the ego (hereafter: e) does not vanish.When the Self (hereafter: S) appears to and in the ego, the ego (now a relatively independent part of S) becomes the function of S. The ego, understanding itself as the knot of inner and outer reality, plays the role of the reason of the whole body, the center of which is S. In this case we represent such a person as e/S. e/S is the subjectivity of the religious life. D.T.Suzuki and one of his disciples, Ryomin Akizuki called e/S the "individual qua trans-individual." 1 In enlightenment, e/S as the authentic subject, which remains potential before enlightenment, is actualized or realized so that it understands itself as e/S, no more as the mere ego. In order for e/S to be realized and understand itself as e/S, egocentricity, egoism and the confusion of the verbalized reality with "reality as it is" must be overcome. This is the goal of religious practice. e/S From the point of view of interreligious dialogue,"Christ who lives in me" corresponds to "actualized Buddha-nature" or "the Formless Self" in Buddhist language, that is, the Self as we call it. 2 In the case of Paul,"Christ who lives in me" is the ultimate subject of him on the one hand, and "Christ the Son of God" is the object of his faith on the other (Gal. 2:19-20). That means: the ego of Paul that believes in the Son of God is borne by "Christ in me"; as Paul says, "Christ was revealed to and [End Page 95] in me" (Gal. 1:16). In this way, the subjectivity of Paul consists of e/S. Of S, namely, Paul is aware as e/S--neither as e, which is ignorant of S, nor as S. It is impossible for S to exist alone. Egocentricity and Egoism The distinction between e and e/S is of fundamental importance to our theme. e means in this essay the mere ego that is ignorant of S.When it becomes aware of S we represent it as the ego of e/S. e is egocentric and egoistic. It goes without saying that the ego-centered "I" driven by desires produces immorality and social anomies. The biblical word for this is sin, the transgression of the Law.But there is another problematic concerning e, namely egoism, which can be at work even in the effort to attain a high level of morality. We understand the egoistic ego as follows: the ego is to itself the only reality that concerns and moves it. It posits itself solely on itself apart from the relation to others and to S. By itself it projects itself and strives to realize itself. It can, among others, set up its own ideals and pursue their realization. It can, for example, conceive the moralistic ideal that seems to be the reverse of immorality and social anomie. Indeed, it can succeed in controlling egocentricity so that it seems to have attained perfect morality. In reality, it is interested only in its own moral perfection, not in the person encountered (moralistic egoism). Such e is illustrated in Luke 18:9-14 and described in Romans 7:7-24. Egoistic ego must die to itself and must be freed from egoism. (In Romans 6, for example, Paul does... (shrink)

Both Ambrose St. John (1815–1875) and John Henry Newman (1801–1890), who were received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845, became members of the Birmingham Oratory. Newman’s closest companion for over three decades, St. John’s death was extremely painful for Newman, not only because it was unexpected, but because of his devotion to Newman as well as his dedication to his spiritual duties. Along with presenting Newman’s narrative of the last few weeks of St. John’s life, this essay raises the (...) question: why did Newman write this “account.”. (shrink)

John Henry Newman has rightly been hailed as a giant in the Catholic intellectual tradition. His contributions to theology, literature, and education have been studied at length; however, his contribution to philosophy has not received appropriate attention. This essay 1) explores Newman’s unique philosophical insights in terms of the phenomenological tradition of Edmund Husserl; 2) analyzes the transcendental approach of certain British scientists—notably Ronald Knox and Charles Darwin; and 3) discusses how Newman might be considered a phenomenologist.

Schopenhauer and the two linguists, Tokieda and Miura, are indispensable figures to elucidate the logic of construction of our counterfactual experiences. In addition to the conditional and the ….

The fruit of a lifetime of study and contemplation, Seiichi Hatano's final work, Time and Eternity, develops most fully his tripartite scheme of temporality. For Hatano, one of the first Japanese philosophers to study the works of Western thinkers, human experience could be analyzed with reference to natural, cultural, and religious temporalities. Each temporal stage is further characterized by the type of love that rules at that level of life. In Time and Eternity, Hatano explores the stages of temporality (...) in depth and attempts to locate the kind of love which governs in each phase. (shrink)

One most common problem in reinforcement learning systems (e.g. Q-learning) is to reduce the number of trials to converge to an optimal policy. As one of the solution to the problem, k-certainty exploration method was proposed. Miyazaki reported that this method could determine an optimal policy faster than Q-learning in Markov decision processes (MDPs). This method is very efficient learning method. But, we propose an improvement plan that makes this method more efficient. In k-certainty exploration method, in case there is (...) no k-uncertainty rule (rules which aren’t selected more than k times) in current state, an agent sometimes walks randomly until it finds a state where it can select a k-uncertainty rule. We think that this behavior is not efficient. To reduce this useless behavior, we propose combining k-certainty exploration method with Dynamic programming (DP). Miyazaki’s system uses DP after all rules are executed at least k times. But, our method uses k-certainty exploration method along with DP during learning. Our method, takes two pattern actions. In case an agent can select k-uncertainty rules, one of these rules is selected at random as k-certainty exploration method. In another case there is no k-uncertainty rule, behavior of agent is different from the behavior of k-certainty exploration method. In that case, our method uses DP to compute an optimal policy for moving from a current state to a state in which some k-uncertainty rules remain. The model for DP is constructed by using only known states. The outline will be described below. First, an agent makes a map constructed by using only known states. In the map, goals are states in which there are k-uncertainty rules and arbitrary state values are set in these states. Point to which attention should be paid is that the map is not given from outside. It is made from only experience. Next, each state values of states in which there are only k-certainty rules in the map are computed by DP (we used Policy Iteration). Finally, an agent continues to select greedy action until it arrives at a state in which it can select a k-uncertainty rule. By this improvement, we expect it can determine an optimal policy faster than k-certainty exploration method. And we have verified that our exploration method can determine an optimal policy faster than k-certainty exploration method by computer simulation. (shrink)

We will give here a purely algebraic proof of the cut elimination theorem for various sequent systems. Our basic idea is to introduce mathematical structures, called Gentzen structures, for a given sequent system without cut, and then to show the completeness of the sequent system without cut with respect to the class of algebras for the sequent system with cut, by using the quasi-completion of these Gentzen structures. It is shown that the quasi-completion is a generalization of the MacNeille completion. (...) Moreover, the finite model property is obtained for many cases, by modifying our completeness proof. This is an algebraic presentation of the proof of the finite model property discussed by Lafont [12] and Okada-Terui [17]. (shrink)

A formal and functional study of the three meters of Old Norse eddic poetry, fornyroislag, malahattr, and ljooahattr, this book provides their systematic account (synchronic, diachronic, and from a comparative Germanic perspective). With thorough data presentation, detailed philological analysis, and sophisticated linguistic explanation, it will be of interest to Germanic philologists/linguists, medievalists, and metrists of all persuasions.".

Life is short and transient--Japanese people call this sentiment mujokan. However, what if we could sweep away the "despair" looming over the present age by proactively accepting this mujo (transience)? Perusing the thought of mujo from the perspectives of philosophy, literature, art and religion, Takeuchi delves into the view of life and death unique to the Japanese people who have shared "grief" and "pain" with each other, as well as into the very core of their underlying spirit." -- Publisher's description.

1-3. [without special titles] -- 4. "Kogaku" no shisō.

「日本語の哲学」の可能性を求めて、「おのずから」と「みずから」の「あわい」という斬新な視点から、やまと言葉の思索を通して、日本人の思想と感情を究明する画期的論考。.

斬新な視点から、やまと言葉の考察を通し、日本語の哲学の可能性を探り、「日本人の心のありか」を指し示す、刮目の書。.