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Toward a History of the Social Sciences in Japan

Toward a History of the Social Sciences in Japan positions 4:2 0 1996 by Duke University Press positions 4:2 Fall 1996 ence remains poorly known outside Japan. Second, this lack of awareness derives not only from more or less predictable factors (eg., the so-called language barrier’ and the disinclination of the West to take seriously the theoretical claims made by non-Western peoples concerning the institutions of the modern world). It derives also, and to a considerable degree, from the defining intellectual condition of Japan’s road to modernity: a resolute faith in the essential noncomparability of Japan’s experience (“only Japan- or the Japanese -could have done this”). Third, the salient feature of this noncomparability is the conviction that Japan can receive and adapt strong impulses from “superior” cultures without sacrificing something called the “national essence.” T h e national essence is not to be identified with cultural receptivity alone, yet at the same time, it is not compromised thereby. This triple paradox, I believe, has structured Japanese social scientific thinking in ways that have impeded a sense of comparability-let alone identitybetween the modern experience of Japan and that of other peoples. As a consequence, the critical capacity that assuredly did develop in Japanese social science has suffered a http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Toward a History of the Social Sciences in Japan

positions asia critique , Volume 4 (2) – Sep 1, 1996

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1996 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-4-2-217
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

positions 4:2 0 1996 by Duke University Press positions 4:2 Fall 1996 ence remains poorly known outside Japan. Second, this lack of awareness derives not only from more or less predictable factors (eg., the so-called language barrier’ and the disinclination of the West to take seriously the theoretical claims made by non-Western peoples concerning the institutions of the modern world). It derives also, and to a considerable degree, from the defining intellectual condition of Japan’s road to modernity: a resolute faith in the essential noncomparability of Japan’s experience (“only Japan- or the Japanese -could have done this”). Third, the salient feature of this noncomparability is the conviction that Japan can receive and adapt strong impulses from “superior” cultures without sacrificing something called the “national essence.” T h e national essence is not to be identified with cultural receptivity alone, yet at the same time, it is not compromised thereby. This triple paradox, I believe, has structured Japanese social scientific thinking in ways that have impeded a sense of comparability-let alone identitybetween the modern experience of Japan and that of other peoples. As a consequence, the critical capacity that assuredly did develop in Japanese social science has suffered a

Journal

positions asia critiqueDuke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 1996

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