The acceptance of the concept of person in modern Japan and its virtue ethics background

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: GOTO HIROSHI 広島大学, 人間社会科学研究科(文), 教授 (90351931)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 人格 / 徳倫理学 / 洋書漢訳 / 英華辞典 / 万国公法 / 戦争責任

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The difficulty in accepting the concept of person, for which no counterpart can be found in Chinese or Japanese, is that it has a theological dimension and differs from the concept of ‘human being’ in its intention and extension. There are two routes for its translation. The Chinese translations of Western books in China and the Dutch and English studies in Japan. The two merged in Japan at the end of the Edo period and during the Meiji era and eventually became established as the translation of the word ‘Jinkaku’. This study systematically compares and categorises the translations of the term person in English-Chinese dictionaries in the second phase of Chinese translations of Western Books and that in “International Law” in the third phase of Chinese translations, and finds traces of the term in modern legal terminology. The results also showed that here is still a long way to go before the term ‘Jinkaku’ as a translation with theological dimensions is established.

Free Research Field

倫理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

西洋思想の根幹をなしながら、中国語にも日本語にも対応語を見出すことのできないPerson概念の受容の経緯を、日本の西洋学術用語翻訳導入に影響を及ぼしたとされる中国の漢訳洋書や日本の蘭学・英学の系譜にまで遡って詳細に辿った研究は皆無である。また本研究の意義は、同概念受容の疑似身分制的/徳倫理学的な土壌に着目したことにある。その出口は、こうした受容のために日本の哲学界は先の戦争を準備促進した、あるいはそれに歯止めをかけることができなかったのではないか、さらには戦後においても、建前としての啓蒙主義的政治文化の定着の陰で負の影響が及んでいるのではないかについての反省的考察の材料を提供することにある。