The Philosophy of Japanese Wartime Resistance by David Williams

Author:David Williams [Williams, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Asia, Philosophy, Political Science, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317918554
Google: 9hZgAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-04-16T16:03:01+00:00

5 World-historical peoples (minzoku) and the ethical (rinrisei)

SUZUKI: Another way of looking at the problem is to stress the importance of the gap between the traditional philosophy of history and contemporary empirical history. In connection with this gap, I have been brooding on the notion of world-historical peoples as one finds it in the work of thinkers such as Hegel, and I think there are significant lacunae between the traditional idea and what we think of world-historical peoples today. When Hegel talked about assuming the burden of world history, of accepting this mission, he had in mind the examples of the ancient Romans and West European peoples.37 And in a similar vein, contemporary Japan has awakened to this world-historical opportunity and the mission that it confers. At various points, there appear to be similarities between Hegel’s concept and what we have been arguing, but in fact there are major differences at issue here.38 It is our recognition of our world-historical mission that underwrites our right and ability to lead and guide East Asia today. Our consciousness defines our position. The burden is not imposed by objective circumstance [but assumed voluntarily] because we have subjectively awakened to it [by and through ourselves].39 And isn’t this precisely what we mean by moralische Energie? Isn’t this Japan’s historical sense of the ethical (rekishi-teki rinri-kan)? Our moral life force (dōtoku-teki-na seimeiryoku)?40

NISHITANI: Yes, I agree that this is the decisive point. The defining characteristic of a world-historical people, taking contemporary Japan as the case in point, is that such peoples are historically self-aware. Whatever the achievements in former times of even the Greeks or the Romans, I don’t think one can credit them with being moved to make history from a practical or constructively conscious attempt to create a new world order. Rather, they were driven to become world-historical peoples by what in some sense can be regarded as a form of historical necessity, but was not self-consciousness. Granted, this form of consciousness was present among the ancient Israelites, but in ways that contradicted genuine subjectivity; this consciousness was not informed by historical reality. Rather than displaying that form of consciousness that rises from the depths of history, the Israelites viewed their mission as something handed down from heaven.

For a nation to qualify today as a genuine world-historical people, as judged from the standpoint of world history, it must cultivate a self-conscious synthesis that both recognizes the nature of historical necessity and embodies an ethically informed subjectivity that is simultaneously practical and creative [because these are all but synonymous]. These characteristics define, I believe, any world-historical people worthy of the name today. There is no question that both the Romans and their European successors were world-historical peoples. But they lacked the self-awareness of being world-historical peoples, that specifically constructive stance towards the world that we find in Japan today; and it is this quality which defines a genuinely world-historical people in the strict sense. This strikes me as a highly significant distinction.

KŌSAKA: I agree.

NISHITANI: Returning

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