Influence of Social Darwinism on the View of International Relations in Modern Japan

2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 15530095
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: RIKKYO UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: MATSUDA Koichiro RIKKYO UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF LAW AND POLITICS, PROFESSOR, 法学部, 教授 (50222302)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2004
• Keywords: Social Darwinism / Nationalism

Research Abstract

This research project focus on the influence of European social Darwinism thought on Japanese political discourse in the early stage of westernization in the late nineteenth century.
The diversity of social Darwinism theory in Europe made complicated effects on the introduction of Darwinian concepts in Japanese intellectual sphere. In this project, I analyzed how the traditional ethical thought in East Asia was modified when it met the challenging idea of ‘survival of the fittest', ‘free competition', or ‘evolution'. Especially, three topics are important. The first is the continuity and change of the idea of justice. The second one is how the image of political body constituted. The third one is the Darwinian influence on the idea of elite formation in the starting period of Meiji government.
Theorists mainly examined in this project are Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, Frederick Harrison, J.K.Bluntschuli, Ludwig Gumplowiz in the western world and Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nishi Amane, Nakae Chomin, Ohomori Shoichi, Liang Qi-chao and Yu Kil-chun in East Asian coutries.