Translated into English for the first time, leading Japanese philosopher, Nishihira Tadashi, explores the deeply experiential philosophy of losing yourself in the reality of the present. He takes us on a tour through the history of Zen, the gatekeeper of the philosophy of no-mind D.T. Suzuki, the Noh theory of Zeami and Takuan's treatise on swordsmanship. Nishihira pulls together the threads of this genealogy of no-mind, showing the richness of the concept and its essential connection to the paradoxical task (...) of becoming fully human. (shrink)

「稽古」とはいかなる思想か。そこに秘められた「智恵」が意味するものとは。「稽古」を知の地平に解き放ち、こころとからだと世界のありかを探る、注目の書。.

Unlearning is a recurrent theme in Japan. To further understanding of what this entails, we focus on the view of learning laid out by a revered 13th century Zen-inspired playwright. For Zeami, learning involved a movement from the acquisition to unlearning of skills, punctuated by an experience of mushin, followed by creative reemergence. To deepen understandings of this unlearning model, we turn to draw comparison with recent discussions in the Western literature, focusing on Double-Loop Learning and Learning III, both inspired (...) by Bateson. Learning III, which Bateson utilized several Zen references to explicate, appears to gesture towards the alternative punctuation of learning envisaged by Zeami, although differences remain. We then shift to highlight empirical work on contemporary Japanese schooling, highlighting practices which suggest elements of a Zeami-like worldview continue to live on in Japan’s learning culture. Unlearning, when viewed as a living tradition embedded in culture, rather than merely a premodern past or future philosophical possibility, help sets the stage for a transnational, transdisciplinary dialogue on how we learn. We perform our own extended dialogue that led to this piece, a mode of engagement we view as methodological innovation, as we work to unlearn our past parochialisms. (shrink)

This essay introduces Walter Benjamin’s historical materialism to illuminate how history teachers may invoke a critique of the past and present through democratizing the production of knowledge in the classroom. Historical materialism gives students access to the means of knowledge production and entrusts them with the task of generating a critique of politics though encounters with historical objects. The rise of the alt-right, alternative facts, and fake news sites necessitates social studies methods that intervene into the fascist seductions of narrative (...) in history. A Benjaminian pedagogy emphasizes reading practices that acknowledge the political layers of history inscribed within the objects. This generates space for forms of pessimism and dialectic critiques of barbarism that students may experience with history beyond the teacher’s capacity for understanding. In the name of democracy over fascism, the article adds a political critique to students’ historical and critical thinking skills. (shrink)

「無心」は、最高のパフォーマンスをもたらす境地であり、それは憧れの対象であり続けた。達磨の禅、世阿弥の伝書、武道の教え、石田梅岩の心学、鈴木大拙の禅研究など、異なる時代、異なる文脈の中で、「無心」はど のように問われてきたのか。「無心」という言葉のもとに育まれた思考のいとなみを描き出すことで、柔軟でしなやかな心のあり方、その融通無碍な活力の深奥にせまる。.

いま、なぜ日本の思想なのか。出発点としての問いかけ。近代において日本思想の研究が立ち上がって行く過程、日本的なるものへの問い、多様な「日本」観などを検討する。.

Recent scandals allegedly linked to CEO compensation have brought executive compensation and perquisites to the forefront of debate about constraining executive compensation and reforming the associated corporate governance structure. We briefly describe the structure of executive compensation, and the agency theory framework that has commonly been used to conceptualize executives acting on behalf of shareholders. We detail some criticisms of executive compensation and associated ethical issues, and then discuss what previous research suggests are likely intended and unintended consequences of some (...) widely proposed executive compensation reforms. We explicitly discuss the following recommendations for reform: require greater independence of compensation committees, require executives to hold equity in the corporation, require greater disclosure of executive compensation, increase institutional investor involvement in corporate governance (including executive compensation), and require firms to expense stock options on their income statements. We provide a brief summary discussion of ethical issues related to executive compensation, and describe possible future research. (shrink)

Today, at the close of the twentieth century, we are confronted by radical changes in the nature of intercultural relations. Those who in previous centuries were unable to venture far from their native villages are today able to visit foreign lands as a matter of course, not only as tourists but also for reasons of commerce or employment. A high degree of intercultural understanding is manifested thereby. But at the same time there arise cultural conflicts and friction. How is that (...) sort of understanding which transcends cultural frontiers possible at all? And what is the root of the different sorts of failure to achieve intercultural communication? These are pressing problems by which mankind as a whole is confronted, and they are problems which philosophers, too, are called upon to face. (shrink)

In the trolley problem, a well-known moral dilemma, the intuitive process is believed to increase deontological judgments, while deliberative reasoning is thought to promote utilitarian decisions. Therefore, based on the dual-process model, there seems to be an attempt to save several lives at the expense of a few others in a deliberative manner. This study examines the validity of this argument. To this end, we manipulate decision-making time in the standard trolley dilemma to compare differences among 119 Japanese female undergraduates (...) under three conditions: intuitive judgment, deliberative judgment, and judgment after a group discussion. The current results demonstrate that utilitarian judgments decreased from 52.9% in the intuition condition to 43.7% in the deliberation condition and 37.0% after the discussion. Additional analysis suggests that the decrease in utilitarian judgments may be related to psychological unwillingness to assume responsibility for the lives of others rather than to an increase in deontological judgments. Finally, these results are discussed from an adaptationist perspective. (shrink)

文献的知識の皮相ではなく、内部にひそむ日本独特の悲哀の感情を読む梅原日本学。縁故をもつ著者達が回顧しつつ思想的意義を説く。.

This volume is a guide to two types of transcendence of academic borders which seem necessary for understanding and modelling brain function.