The Review of Life Studies Vol.6 (December 2015):1-28 Manga and Philosophy Why Was the Book "Manga Introduction to Philosophy" Written? Masahiro Morioka* The following pages are slightly modified PowerPoint slides presented at the first conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, Barcelona, Spain. (December 4th, 2015). * The Review of Life Studies is a publication of the Life Studies Press (www.lifestudies.org/press). * Professor, Human Sciences, Waseda University, 2-579-15 Mikajima, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359-1192 Japan. Email: morioka_osaka[a]yahoo.co.jp 2015/12/8 1 MANGA AND PHILOSOPHY WHY WAS THE BOOK "MANGA INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY" WRITTEN? (A SLIGHTLY MODIFIED VERSION) 森岡正博 Masahiro MORIOKA Professor, Human Sciences, Waseda University, Japan morioka@waseda.jp 1 The First Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy, Barcelona, Spain. December 4th, 2015. PROFILE OF MASAHIRO MORIOKA  Born in 1958. Graduated from University of Tokyo. Worked for International Research Center for Japanese Studies, and Osaka Prefecture University.  Currently teach philosophy and ethics at Human Sciences, Waseda University.  Background:  Physics (three years at UT but now I've forgot everything)  Wittgenstein (BA, MA)  Bioethics (Ph.D.) 2 2015/12/8 2 MY BOOKS (IN JAPANESE)  Bioethics  Brain Dead Person: Human‐relationship‐oriented Analysis of Brain‐death 1989  Reconsidering the View of Life 1994  Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics: A New Perspective on Brain Death, Feminism, and Disability 2001  A Philosophical Inquiry into Personhood, Dignity, and Brain Death 2015  Criticism of contemporary civilization  Consciousness Communication 1993  How to Live in a Post‐religious Age 1996  Painless Civilization 2003 3  Gender and sexuality  Confessions of a Frigid Man 2005, 2013  Lessons in Love for Herbivore Men 2008  Philosophical essays  An Intellectual Method of Facing Oneself 1997  The 33rd Stone: A Philosophy for a Wounded Age 2009  Connecting the Living and the Deceased 2012  Philosophy  Manga Introduction to Philosophy 2013  Morioka (ed.) Reconsidering Meaning in Life 2015  On Life and Dignity (201? next book)  Philosophy of Life (201? next book) * Some books have been translated into Korean / Chinese, and are currently being translated into Arabic and Indonesian. Some have been translated into English but are currently unpublished. 4 2015/12/8 3 MANGA INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY MASAHIRO MORIOKA (TEXT, ORIGINAL DRAWING) NYANCOF TERADA (DRAWING)  This is perhaps the world's first book in which a philosopher himself illustrates his own philosophical investigation into hard problems on time, being, solipsism, and life, in the form of "Manga."  This is not a book that illustrates the history of philosophy or great philosophers' ideas. (Logicomix)  Original drawings (230 pages) were prepared by me, and the final drawings were made by the professional cartoonist Nyancof Terada. 5  I made original drawings with pencils.  Mr. Terada made final drawings on his PC.  It took three years of trials and errors to finish the book.  The following slides show my original drawings (right) and Terada's final cartoons (left) 6 2015/12/8 4 7 8 2015/12/8 5 9 10 まんまるくん Manmaru-kun いまいまくん Imaima-kun 先生 Sensei 2015/12/8 6 WHAT I THOUGHT AFTER PUBLICATION  1) There are philosophical thinking and ideas that can be best described in the form of Manga.  We can draw "the flow of thinking and/or images" directly in Manga  For me, in many cases, a philosophical thinking first emerges as a picture. It makes sense to draw that picture before it takes the form of language. 11  2) Manga has strong power to attract people's attention.  I don't know why but even a child can read Manga two or three hours continuously, without rest.  A combination of the right brain and the left brain?  We've found that simply drawn Manga pictures suit well with philosophical contents. 12 YES NO Copyrighted Material 2015/12/8 7  3) There are philosophical thinking and ideas that cannot be well described in the form of Manga.  It is impossible to draw a Manga picture which describes complicated logical sentences such as: "Because X and Y has such and such relationships, if X includes A, B, and C, then it naturally follows that Y ........"  Sometimes, a whole page is filled with words. 13  It is impossible to draw such abstract concepts as "Nothing(ness)" and "the death of myself". (This was a very interesting discovery for me.) 14 I used the word "Nothing 無" to describe the concept of Nothing(ness) after the death of mine. 2015/12/8 8 AN EXAMPLE OF PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSIONS IN "MANGA INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY"  In Chapter One "Time", which deals with the philosophy of time, I discuss the following:  "The past itself" and "the past that springs up now" is different  "The future itself" and "the future that springs up now" is different  "The present this instant" and "now" is different  "Now" is "the arena of "now""  "The present this instant" does not exist inside "the arena of "now"" 15 16 2015/12/8 9 17 18 Some pages after 2015/12/8 10 19 Some pages after 20 2015/12/8 11 21 22 2015/12/8 12 23 24 2015/12/8 13  The discussion in the above slides borrows a lot from great philosophers in the past.  For example, imagine Edmund Husserl's "Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time" and Aristotle's discussion of "time."  But the way of visualizing it may be original and interesting.  The discussion in the following slides depicts my own philosophical thoughts on "time". 25 26 Some pages after 2015/12/8 14 27 28 2015/12/8 15  "Past‐present‐future" is not just a concept. It is a strong conviction held by us who are living our every day life.  Then, how does this strong conviction arise in us? 29 30 Some pages after 2015/12/8 16 31 32 2015/12/8 17 33 34 2015/12/8 18 CONTENTS OF THE BOOK Chapter 1 Discussion on "What is Time?" Chapter 2 Discussion on "What is Being?" Chapter 3 Discussion on "What is I?" Chapter 4 Discussion on "Meaning of life" 35 ANOTHER EXAMPLE FROM CHAPTER 3  The following is a sequence in which Sensei introduces the mystery of the concept of "I". 36 2015/12/8 19 37 38 2015/12/8 20 39 40 2015/12/8 21 41 42 2015/12/8 22  In this introductory part, a philosophical issue concerning the existence of "I" is depicted directly and intuitively in the form of Manga.  And the next slides show the conclusion of this chapter. 43 44 2015/12/8 23 45  It is difficult to translate Japanese 迷い into English/French etc.  Sensei distinguishes "true solipsism", which claims that both other minds and the self are fictions, from "(common) solipsism", which claims that only "this I" exists.  And Sensei stresses that from the perspective of "true solipsism" the existence of other minds and the self should be considered 迷い (misunderstanding).  However, Sensei concludes that to live is to sincerely live with this 迷い (misunderstanding). In this sense, Sensei seems to affirm (say yes to) 迷い. 46 2015/12/8 24 ANOTHER EXAMPLE FROM CHAPTER 4  The following is an introductory part of Chapter 4 "Meaning of Life".  Here Manmaru‐kun cries out for the question of meaning of life. 47 48 2015/12/8 25 49 • Sensei tries to persuade Manmarukun to believe that one's life cannot be compared with anything else, hence, his actual life cannot be compared with his counterfactual nonlife. WHY I WROTE "MANGA INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY"  I have had an interest in the visualization of philosophical ideas/images, and I wanted to try to visualize them myself.  I wanted to write an introduction to philosophy that can be easily read by teenagers.  Japan is a nation of Manga and Anime. There are many Mangas that deal with the history of philosophy or past famous philosophers. However, there is no Manga book that is drawn by a philosopher him/herself from his/her own philosophical perspective.  After publication, I came to the conclusion that philosophy and Manga have good chemistry. 50 2015/12/8 26  In Japan, not only children and young people, but adults read Manga. Even if professors read Manga in their offices or libraries, no one criticizes them. This is a good environment for professors/philosophers to write Manga books. (What about your countries?)  Now I think I will try to write an "academic" paper in the form of Manga someday.  What differences are there between Manga, Comic, Cartoon, and B.D.?  Manga Introduction to Philosophy  Comic Introduction to Philosophy  Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy  Bande Dessinée Introduction to Philosophy 51 WHAT ABOUT "MANGA INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS"?  My intuition: "Manga Introduction to Ethics" will be easier to make than "Manga Introduction to Philosophy".  But "Ethics" will not become an adventurous Manga book because,  1) it is very difficult to visualize such abstract concepts as "good", "evil", "love", "happiness", "justice" in the form of Manga, so we are forced to draw "good guys", "happy people" etc. instead,  2) there have been already many excellent story‐based Mangas that deal with "friendship", "love", and "justice".  "Manga Introduction to Logic" may be interesting and adventurous. 52 2015/12/8 27  When I was writing this book, I never imagined that academic researchers outside Japan would have interest in this book (because this was a Manga), so I was surprised when Pierre asked me a permission to translate into French.  Pierre and I are now looking for publishers who might be interested in French edition (or other language editions). If you have any suggestions please let us know.  Original Japanese edition at Amazon.co.jp (Kindle): http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00G1ZUOEK/ Amazon.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/4062882167/ 53  Author's website: http://www.lifestudies.org/ 54 2015/12/8 28 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION