10 Aug The Case for Confucian Philosophy (conference presentation)

The Case for Confucian Philosophy – an analysis of Yamaga Sokō’s concept of loyalty and its modern interpretations

4th ENOJP Conference: ‘Übergänge – Transitions – 移り渉り: Crossing the Boundaries in Japanese Philosophy’

September 5 – 8, 2018, Universität Hildesheim, Germany

[Presentation abstract]

Following WW2, inquiries into Japanese Confucian philosophy have been grappling with its unfortunate entanglement with the prewar authoritarian regime, leading to its massive disavowal and more recent accounts about its eradication after the war, both in local and Western scholarship.

Most such theories view Confucian moral philosophy as one of the primary enablers of Japanese prewar authoritarianism and point to its (presumably) intrinsic incompatibility with liberal and democratic principles (with its accent on formalism and passé conceptualizations of social existence and morality, enforcing obedience and submission) as a main cause for it. However, in this presentation, I put forward the thesis that Japanese Confucian philosophy was rather a collateral victim of prewar authoritarianism, and not an enabler, and I will attempt to prove this by reflecting on the Confucian concept of loyalty (忠) and its modern and premodern interpretations.

For this purpose, I will analyze the uses (and abuses) of the term by Meiji and Taishō moral philosophers, and I will subsequently revisit the concept as originally proposed by the Edo period Confucian scholar Yamaga Sokō (1622-1685) in his work Shidō 士道.

Shidō, the first work of Japanese philosophy which attempted to adapt the Confucian ethical framework to the realities of the Edo period (mainly with reference to the moral life of the military class) is not the most renowned or mature of Sokō’s works. However, it is essential for the dialectics of loyalty in Japan, as it was one of the primary sources of inspiration for modern conceptualizations of morality and national identity (thanks mainly to the work of Yoshida Shōin 吉田松陰 (1830-1859) and his disciples, who went on to become members of the Meiji political and intellectual elite). 

By analyzing Sokō’s Shidō, I attempt to shed some light on the historical evolution of the Confucian ideal of loyalty while simultaneously proposing an alternate interpretation of the relationship between Japanese Confucian moral philosophy and the mechanisms of authoritarianism.

For more information on the ‘Übergänge – Transitions – 移り渉り: Crossing the Boundaries in Japanese Philosophy’ conference, click HERE.