This multidisciplinary subject in clinical anthropology was started in April 1996 among 206 students distributed over all Colleges and Schools in the University of Tsukuba with the exception of School of Medical Sciences. After every class students write down their comments on a compulsory attendance slip, and these comments were examined. Female students agreed with the surrogate mothers and homosexuality more than male students. Male students denied childcare by homosexual parents more than female students. Sex selection insemination with the exception (...) for disease prevention was denied by female students significantly more than male students. (shrink)

Phenomenology of the body and the third generation of cognitive science, both of which attribute a central role in human cognition to the body rather than to the Cartesian notion of representation, face the criticism that higher-level cognition cannot be fully grasped by those studies. The problem here is how explicit representations, consciousness, and thoughts issue from perception and the body, and how they cooperate in human cognition. In order to address this problem, we propose a research program, a cognitive (...) phenomenology of the body, which is basically motivated by the perspective of Merleau-Ponty. We find a substantial clue in developmental psychological studies on the body and language. (shrink)

This book, Emerson, the Philosophy of Obedience, attempts to trace Emerson who sought to integrate Western and Eastern thoughts to found a new philosophy in the new world. An ardent admirer of Plato, he is at the same time an enthusiast of Eastern philosophy. "Memory," for example, is one of his last lecture series, "Natural Method of Mental Philosophy," in which men are all taken as the halves, because men have aftersight, but not aforesight. Memory is, to Emerson, not only (...) to call forth the past knowledge to the present, but also there is something related to the future, because some past things memorized in the mind are changed into "a possession of its law." This is called "a mutation in quality," by which past things in the mind come into "a possession of its law," obeying the law, just as, in Phaedo, "all the apparent equals strive to attain absolute equality." The Platonic method of Analogy works doubtlessly in Emerson. Men obey this law, because "Nature and [Man] are from one source, and that he, when humble and obedient, is nearer to the source." The mind is such a movement, as he finds that "The mind yields sympathetically to the tendencies or laws which stream through things." The idea of "humble and obedient," or humility and obedience, comes originally from the Chaldæan Oracles and the Heetopades, which have a decisive influence on Emerson, through "the light-armed arrive at the summit," and "the flower of the mind." Because of this profound Eastern thought and ideas, he is called "this student of Eastern philosophy.". (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to suggest an alternative view to the conventional distinction between ontology and epistemology, thereby reconstituting the relationship between the cognitive self and the real world. More specifically, we will criticize the distinction by shedding light on a peculiar character of the body, which can provide a critical perspective against Cartesian dualism. Furthermore, we will give a sketchy description of the philosophy of touch, and propose the notion of skin-self, or self-manifesting self, as a (...) radical alternative to the modern conception of self. (shrink)

Opera is a performing art in which music plays the leading role, and the acting of singers has a synergistic effect with the music. The mirror neuron system represents the neurophysiological mechanism underlying the coupling of perception and action. Mirror neuron activity is modulated by the appropriateness of actions and clarity of intentions, as well as emotional expression and aesthetic values. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that an opera performance induces mirror neuron activity in the audience so that (...) the performer effectively shares an embodied performance with the audience. However, it is uncertain which aspect of opera performance induces mirror neuron activity. It is hypothesized that although auditory stimuli could induce mirror neuron activity, audiovisual perception of stage performance is the primary inducer of mirror neuron activity. To test this hypothesis, this study sought to correlate opera performance with brain activity as measured by electroencephalography in singers while watching an opera performance with sounds or while listening to an aria without visual stimulus. We detected mirror neuron activity by observing that the EEG power in the alpha frequency band was selectively decreased in the frontal-central-parietal area when watching an opera performance. In the auditory condition, however, the alpha-band power did not change relative to the resting condition. This study illustrates that the audiovisual perception of an opera performance engages the mirror neuron system in its audience. (shrink)

This article discusses three policy ideas that address the limitations of the traditional welfare state: universal basic income (UBI), universal basic services (UBS), and the social economy. As a lens from which to evaluate these policy alternatives, we develop a concept of active citizenship as an interactive and recursive process between people’s equal political influence and the institutional conditions in which they are placed. While the social policy discourse on active citizenship has centred on the debate between increasing individual responsibilities (...) or enhancing people’s capabilities, our conception recentres the political dimension of active citizenship as people’s capacity, not only to exercise individual self-determination, but also collective self-determination over shared conditions. We conclude that, in addition to the conditions for security and autonomy, opportunities for organised social cooperation are necessary to achieve a virtuous cycle between people’s political influence and the institutions that support it. (shrink)

Young children often treat robots as social agents after they have witnessed interactions that can be interpreted as social. We studied in three experiments whether four-year-olds from three cultures and adults from two cultures will attribute ownership of objects to a robot that engages in social gaze with a human. Participants watched videos of robot-human interactions, in which objects were possessed or new objects were created. Children and adults applied the same ownership rules to humans and robots – irrespective of (...) whether the robot engaged in social gaze or not. However, there was cultural variation in the types of ownership rules used. In Experiment 3, we removed further social cues, finding that just showing a pair of self-propelled robot-arms elicited ownership attributions. The role of social gaze in social attributions to robots and cross-cultural differences in ownership understanding are discussed. (shrink)

江戸後期に活躍した平田篤胤の思想を宗教性に注目して内在的に把握し、さらにその展開を門人組織=気吹舎の実践が幕末社会ではたした役割から捉えかえし、思想史研究・社会史研究・宗教史研究の三つの視点と方法を有 機的に結びつけた注目の成果。.

人間であること、これを問う政治哲学の徹底。その先に見えるのは、果たして平和的共存の根源性か、戦いのそのとき、自分以外ではありえない人間の生々しさか。.