Abstrakt
In the 21st century, Japanese society faces a crisis of values that has emerged from the postmodern approach to the individual and society. Neoliberalism focus on the individual has proved to be non-functional.
Emphasis on individualism found its real expression in the right of self-determination or development of political participation, as evident especially in the 60s and 70s. But it also brought a crisis of identity, egoistic attitudes, not to mention a feeling of alienation from society.
Generally speaking, an inadequate grasp of the relationship between the individual and society caused a crisis of values. The clue to this problem lies in re-defning this essential relation.
Watsuji Tetsuro was one of the philosophers who dealt with the contradiction between the individual and society. His quest for an adequate interpretation of Japanese society is accompanied with harsh criticism of Western individualism.
Due to misinterpretation of Watsuji's ideas during World War II, his work as a whole has been labelled totalitarian. Nonetheless, during the 60s and especially at the turn of the millennium, the interest on Watsuji's ideas went through a renaissance period.
To Watsuji, human existence is neither completely individual nor communal, but a combination of both. Furthermore, all human actions are possible only in human relations.
Individuality emerges from negating the totality and vice versa. The mutual negating must never cease, because then the whole will perish.
In my opinion, this is precisely the case of society today. The signifcance of Watsuji's ethical attitude as a contribution to the ongoing debate over the proper way to conceive the relation between the individual and society is undebatable.
The main target of my presentation is to open the intellectual discourse in order to re-evaluate Watsuji's ethics in the context of value crisis of Japanese society in 21st century Japan.