Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

An ecological view of history has to do with how history is accounted for in relation to the ecological conditions in which civilization is situated. The Japanese have developed a unique approach to the understanding of this issue. The idea that ecology has an impact on culture and history and the philosophical underpinning of the particular Japanese approach have their history in the pre-World War II era. A short review of the genealogy of this concept is called for. The distinctly Japanese ecological approach is closely associated with the Kyoto School of thought. This school encompasses philosophy, history, civilization, evolution, and other fields. The best-known scholar of this school is arguably Kitarô Nishida (1870–1945), a philosopher who amalgamated western philosophy, notably that of Henri Bergson and the neo-Kantians, with Zen philosophy and developed his own unique philosophy, the representative work being Inquiry into the Good (1990). One important element of his philosophy is his concept of self, which sees the self and its environs – other beings, nature, and the universe – as an integrated whole, rejecting the dichotomy between self and its environs – an approach accepted in western philosophy. This conception of oneness of self and the universe was inherited by Tetsurô Watsuji (1889–1960), a major figure in ecological history. Watsuji is probably the first in ... log in or subscribe to read full text