"Paradox drives a good deal of philosophy in every tradition. In the Indian and Western traditions, there is a tendency among many philosophers to run from contradiction and paradox. If and when a contradiction appears in a theory, it is regarded as a sure sign that something has gone amiss. This aversion to paradox commits them, knowingly or not, to the view that reality must be consistent. In East Asia, however, philosophers have reacted to paradox differently. Many East Asian philosophers-both (...) in the Daoist and the Buddhist traditions-have openly embraced paradox. They have taken compelling arguments for contradictory positions to suggest that the world is-at least in some respects, and often in very deep respects-inconsistent, and that our best theories of the world will therefore be inconsistent. This book is an initial survey of the writings of some influential East Asian thinkers who were committed to paradox, and for good reason. Their acceptance of contradiction allowed them to develop important insights that evaded those who consider paradox out of bounds"--. (shrink)

In his article in this issue, " 'How do Mādhyamikas Think?' Revisited," Tom Tillemans reflects on his earlier article "How do Mādhyamikas Think?" (2009), itself a response to earlier work of ours (Deguchi et al. 2008; Garfield and Priest 2003). There is much we agree with in these non-dogmatic and open-minded essays. Still, we have some disagreements. We begin with a response to Tillemans' first thoughts, and then turn to his second thoughts.Tillemans (2009) maintains that it is wrong to attribute (...) to Nāgārjuna or to his Mādhyamika followers a strong dialetheism, according to which some contradictions of the form p ∧ ¬p are to be accepted. He argues that, nonetheless, a weak dialetheism may be implicit in the .. (shrink)

Explores mind-body philosophy from an Asian perspective.

立憲主義とは何か。憲法の本質に迫る名著に新章を追加、「攻撃される日本の立憲主義」「藤田宙靖教授の『覚え書き』について」「『義務なき働き』について」の三論考を補章として新たに収録。.

憲法学の本道を外れ、気の向くまま杣道へ。山を熟知したきこり同様、憲法学者だからこそ発見できる憲法学の新しい景色へ。 勁草書房編集部webサイトでの好評連載エッセイ「憲法学の散歩道」の書籍化第2弾。書下ろし3篇も収録。強烈な世界像、人間像を喚起するボシュエ、ロック、ヘーゲル、ヒューム、トクヴィル、ニーチェ、ヴェイユ、 ネイミアらを取り上げ、その思想の深淵をたどり、射程を測定する。さまざまな論者の思想を入り口に憲法学の奥深さへと誘う特異な書。.

Purpose of this article is to assess the validity of the Razian conception of the rule of law by subjecting it to the acid test of Michel Troper's 'realist theory of interpretation'. The author argues that, in light of the Wittgensteinian view of rule-following, a serious indeterminacy can be seen as inherent in both this conception of the rule of law and Troper's theory of interpretation.

In Japan during the 1980s, there was an interesting debate about how to teach the area of a parallelogram effectively to primary school children. Yutaka Saeki criticized the standard method, which relies on a cut-and-paste procedure. He argued that the standard method inevitably failed to convince children because it does not provide any cogent reason for them to accept that the formula ‘base x height’ is indeed true. Saeki proposed his own method using a bundle of paper. This method, however (...) convincing at first glance, was totally dismissed by Akira Nakagaki based on his orthodox scientific methodology. There emerged a lively debate between the two. By means of a reconstruction of this debate, this paper will show how the materiality of a thing can scaffold the process of gaining understanding of the concept of geometrical space. Although Saeki and Nakagaki were both unaware of the fact, the debate between them shows clearly that the convincing points of Saeki’s method rely on its material basis. The materiality of a thing can serve as a common basis, in which acquaintance in the context of everyday life is transgressed to the mathematical context. With this transgressive structure entailed in the materiality of a thing, children can be led to understand the spatial logic of the parallelogram, while they themselves make their own reasoning and judgement based on the context of their everyday lives. (shrink)

Die Naturalistische Auffassung der Pädagogik scheint unaufhaltsam voranzuschreiten, wie es an der globalen Tendenzen der „learnification“ der Erziehung ablesbar ist. Naturalistische Ansätze hinterlassen in der Pädagogik sichtlich widersprüchliche Konsequenzen: die Hervorhebung der vorbestimmten und der plastischen Merkmale der menschlichen Natur und ferner die Hervorhebung der aktiven und der rezeptiven Seiten der menschlichen Plastizität. Um die komplizierte Beziehungsstruktur dieser doppelten Beidseitigkeit zu erläutern, wird auf die geschichtliche Ursprungsphase der pädagogischen Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Naturalismus zurückgegriffen: eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Evolutionstheorie in der (...) Pädagogik in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. und am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts. (shrink)

This paper compares aspects of the thinking of Walter Benjamin and John Dewey. Both attempted to address the problem of ‘poverty of experience’ in modern society by means of an anti-dualistic concept of experience and the concept of media. These concepts can be observed optimally in their work on aesthetics. Such concepts of experience and media were the keys to the development of new conceptions of education. Differences in their understanding of media, however, led them to different strategies in the (...) development of their educational thought. The present paper will show that Benjamin's strategy offers a promising alternative to that of Dewey. (shrink)

This book is an inquiry into ki-energy, its role within Eastern mind-body theory, and its implications for our contemporary Western understanding of the body. Yuasa examines the concept of ki-energy as it has been used in such areas as acupuncture, Buddhist and Taoist meditation, and the martial arts. To explain the achievement of mind-body oneness in these traditions he offers an innovative schematization of the lived body. His approach is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, offering insights into Western philosophy, religion, medical science, (...) depth psychology, parapsychology, theater, and physical education. To substantiate the relationship that ki-energy forms between the human body and its environment, Yuasa introduces contemporary scientific research on ki-energy in China and Japan, as well as evidence from acupuncture medicine and from the experience of meditators and martial arts practitioners. This evidence requires not only a rethinking of the living human body and of the mind-body and mind-matter relation, but also calls into question the adequacy of the existing scientific paradigm. Yuasa calls for an epistemological critique of modern science and explores the issue of the relation of teleology to science. (shrink)

Very few attempts have been made to survey patient opinions, particularly regarding the use of residual biospecimens and health information in research, to clarify their values. We conducted a questionnaire survey that targeted outpatients of a university hospital to gauge their awareness levels and understand patient perspectives on research that uses these items. Few patients felt that obtaining individual consent for each research study was necessary. Most patients expressed the view that researchers should be obligated to inform them about the (...) research use of their items and be subject to self-directed rules. The research community should try to obtain “societal consent regarding an opt-out system” from the public. A salient value-sharing-based governance structure is necessary for obtaining public trust. (shrink)

In this issue, Constance Kassor describes Gorampa's attitude to contradictions as they occur in various contexts of Buddhist pursuit. We agree with much of what she says; with some things we do not.First, some preliminary comments, and a fundamental disagreement. Kassor says:Based on . . . [the assumption that Nāgārjuna has a coherent system of thought] one must resolve apparent contradictions in Nāgārjuna's texts in order to maintain the coherency of his logic. The problem with contradictions is that if they (...) are introduced into a classical logical system, that entire system can break down. This is because of the law of explosion—the principle that everything can follow [DGP: does follow] from a contradiction.One .. (shrink)

This paper contrasts and illustrates two types of breakthroughs in philosophy; i.e., external and internal ones. Both are made possible through its application to a newfield. In the external breakthrough, a new field is discovered by such factors without philosophy as encounters with different traditions of thought and advance in technology. In the internal one, a new field is brought into attention by critical examination of one or another assumption within philosophy that has once dismissed the field as too trivial (...) or insignificant to be its proper subject. Based on this distinction, a research guideline for philosophy is proposed that one must always seek the possibility of its internal breakthrough. It is also suggested that the philosophy of science and epistemology can be innovated internally when they are applied to a new field, that is, statistics. Finally the distinction between pure and applied philosophy is reinterpreted in the light of the internal breakthrough. (shrink)

Although many models of consciousness have been proposed from various viewpoints, they have not been based on learning activities in a whole system with the capabilities of autonomous adaptation. We have been investigating a simplified system using artificial neural nodes to clarify the functions and configuration needed for learning in a system that autonomously adapts to the environment. We demonstrated that phenomenal consciousness is explained using a method of "virtualization" in the information system and that learning activities in a whole (...) system adaptation are related to consciousness. However, we have not sufficiently clarified the learning activities of such a system. Consciousness is basically modeled as a system-level learning activity to modify both its own configuration and states in autonomous adaptation through investigating learning activities as a whole system. The model not only explains the time delay in Libet's experiment, but is also positioned as an improved model of Global Workspace Theory (GWT). (shrink)

We show that for any infinite cardinal κ, every strongly $(\kappa + 1)-strategically$ closed poset is strongly $\kappa^+-strategically$ closed if and only if $AP_\kappa$ (the approachability property) holds, answering the question asked in [5]. We also give a complete classification of strengths of strategic closure properties and that of strong strategic closure properties respectively.