Today' post

  1. WHO SAID THAT?

  2. -Wang Gen-

  3. …was a founder of the left-wing of the teaching of Wang Yang-ming, taught his thinking through all the life as common people were, produced many passionate practical persons of the age under his school. He was called as a teacher, treated as an important figure from everyone.

  4. ‘There are eels in the water of a large pot, gasping for breath feebly, tangled one another. Suddenly a loach appeared amid, rampaged through them, at that moment the eels changed their conditions as if they got the lifeblood by the loach establishing secret communication with, however, it seemed that the small fish just obeyed his original nature indeed. Then, an old thinker said, ‘It also must be the same situation of mine as an existence between the people and the world. Because a manly man holds everything in the world being with it as one, have the will for the world to sacrifice his life for the people.’ At last, a will of going around the world happened there, evoked thunderstorm in a minute. The loach leaped over the pot, threw himself into the ocean, enjoyed his great pleasure unlimited. Next, after looked back the eels in the pot, the loach changed into a dragon with the entire tremble, brought the thunderstorm again, turned over the pot. Finally, the fish with a gasp for feeble breath recovered their conditions completely, came back to the broad ocean with the small fish cheerfully.’ - From 'A theory of eels and loaches'

    f:id:everest8764:20170622124805j:plain

'THE GREAT CLASSICS OF JAPAN' on TWITTER. Please enjoy reading this series.

The Great Classics of Japan

-Koukichi Kano-

 

f:id:everest8764:20161222053317j:plain

 

 Kokichi Kano was a peculiar philosopher of materialism, low production figure instead of the quite amount of his knowledge, didn't leave even one book, though he was an educator, authour in fact, had a bit of artistic profile as an appraiser of antiques, traditional paintings and calligraphy of Japan, not a thinker exactly.

This book is one of his few works within, has most of his essays in the contents. And also there are no philosophical writings, although his philosophical thinking appeared on his attitude, making effort sincerely to the historical facts or old Japanese calligraphies that must be the things, which can't be added by others any more as no movable stuffs. According to an editor of this work, Kano didn't read books, which is a literary kind of genre almost. When a famous novelist Souseki Natsume presented him with the books, he wasn't pleased so much, because he liked rather a fact itself than novels, which include the stories made up by the author. In fact, Kano collected newspapers, kept all the letters from his acquaintances, endeavored to record every data of the antiques gathered, dealt with, completely. It is an unusual, abnormal interest almost of him that he collected facts intensely, and also his way of studying valued a certain objective fact, not did a sublime thinking, idea. Indeed, the editor as appeared above probably remembered it somehow.

 By the way, Kano was older than Kitaro Nishida who was a foremost philosopher in modern Japan, shared the careers with Kano as a scholar, stayed within the academic world for a long period, had an experience that gave him an opportunity, which was a lecture at the palace of the Emperor. However, on the other hand Kano changed the course in the middle of his profession, resigned from the national Kyoto University after working only two years, and disappeared into the real world as an ordinary person, left from academic societies.

 Notwithstanding, Kano was quite an intellectual person absolutely. There was an episode that when Kano's old colleagues visited him once a time, asked for, recommended him a post that was becoming a teacher for the prince as an educational part in the court of the Emperor. Though, he answered, refused the offer, and said that you had to know that he was a man of radical thinking, didn’t deserve the King’s master because he never disguised himself as a figure, personage.

 It is difficult to speculate the true meanings of his words at that time, though Kano had deep sympathy of agricultural communism derived from a thinker in the Edo period past. Thus, it may the reason of what he turned down the offer. Moreover, an apparent reason that his thought was a kind of radical one is that two years before he resigned the university, a political affair, the Case of high treason (Taigyaku-jiken) happened in 1911, and he strongly influenced from the event, the people involved, which had quite an aggressive, radical ideas of materialism. Therefore, he must have criticized the basic premise of idealism keenly, such as ‘the existence of God’ and ‘the immortality of spirit,’ at his lecture in the school.  

 Here is quite an interesting part in this book, which Kano took up three examples to prevent, inhibit a wrong any while there was nothing he came up with except those. One is moral, second is a religion and the third is a law, he said. Then, how about the effectiveness we can expect from the three? However, only one thing appears there, which is a terrible fact, though it is inevitable because of a fact, reality in the world certainly. Not only that, what the fact means is that the wrong can't be resolved, extinguished by means of the three ways, which human has tried to exterminate them ever since, even though if judging them through a pure reason, the experiences human had in the history or more the realities of this time we observed. Then again, what means do we expect to stop or exterminate completely the wrong, except the three? Do we have a something way of it? Kano just said yes, we have. What he sent an answer to the question straightly was that improving the economic systems over the world and the like. Thus, he chose a course of a social revolution at last to cure the social evils radically. On the other hand, argued that it was true that Marx influenced over the world with the idea, and his thought must be worth to study even for the opposites too, as a lesson learned from someone's else mistake, besides the idea seemed to apply a scientific way of study because it is based on a historical materialism. Not only that, Kano definitely adopted the standpoint such Marxism because of the scientific approach as well, didn’t satisfy the current situation around, over the world, caring for a reform of unreasonable things. At least, the author of this book reached at the point, shared the idea with Marx.

 However, Kano was not a supporter of Marxism entirely and there seem to be some uncomfortable feelings toward the idea in his writing. In fact, he was a person who had a view of anti-violence, denied the truth of Marxism that has quite aggressive words, activities. Moreover, because of the most noticeable view of his critics, Kano didn't accept the dialectical thought absolutely, which is the center of Marxism. In a word, he recognized the scientific way of study in Marxism as one of analytical ways, understood the differences between the dialectical way of approach and the analytical way, then, throw away the former one from his standing point so as to defend the scientific study he had. Indeed, Kano was a practical figure that grasped such way of study through the experiences, endeavourers for long years that he graduated a mathematics course of study before finishing philosophy course at the university with a research thesis about mathematics. In the six essays of the book, the way of his analytical philosophy is summarized well, standing on a physical principle, which establishes the superiority of his philosophy indeed.