| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OGAWA Mariko Mie University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor, 人文学部, 教授 (00185513)
TOYAMA Atsushi Mie University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor, 人文学部, 教授 (70212066)
KYUMA Taiken Mie University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Assistant Professor, 人文学部, 助教授 (60324498)
SAITO Akira University of Tokyo, Faculty of Literature, Professor, 大学院人文社会系研究科, 教授 (80170489)
SASAKI Yoshiaki Tokyo Women's Christian University, College of Arts and Sciences, Professor, 文理学部, 教授 (00144220)
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| Research Abstract |
Justice is a value which has been playing a central role in the formation and maintenance of society. However, in pre-modern society, which was essentially an aristocratic society, in which the existence of social hierarchy was taken for grated, honor was also a value of central importance. By contrast, in modern society, in which equality has been established as a fundamental value, justice based on the contract between equal individuals has come to occupy the central position. Social contract theory, developed by modern political theorists, such as Hobbes and Lock, is a good example. In particular, Hobbes, in spite of his still holding the ideal of honor, developed modern theory of justice from the realistic point of view. In the development of his thought, we can see a reflection of the time when society was shifting from pre-modern to modern society.
In ancient China, it was generally accepted that only those who knows the ideal of human beings can be a ruler of society, in other words, only those who are morally excellent in the highest degree can come into power. This is an interesting parallel between the Platonic theory of justice and the ancient Chinese political theory.
In Buddhism of ancient India, the concept of dharma, a central idea of Buddhism, has an aspect of justice, which is a norm that preserves the order of society. This means that the western idea of justice serves as a perspective from which an analysis of the relation between dharma and the order of community, a problem proper to Buddhist thought, is conducted.
In Japanese thought of Edo period, honor was a main issue in the master-servant relation of BUSHIDO (Japanese warrior ideal). There are two, seemingly contradictory elements, the pursuit of name as an individual warrior, and the service a warrior has to do for his master. "HAGAKURE," a masterpiece of BUSHIDO, deals with this problem by subsuming the former into the latter.
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