著者

宮永 孝

出版者

法政大学社会学部学会

雑誌

社会志林 = Hosei journal of sociology and social sciences (ISSN:13445952)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.67, no.2, pp.1-166, 2020-09

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It was only after the Meiji Restoration (i.e. 1868), the start of a new government following the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, that the Japanese commenced to learn Western philosophy properly. But the Study of philosophy in Japan was primitive. Japanese had, however, only a few scholars who knew something about Western philosophy in the closing days of the Tokugawa government. Banri Hoashi (帆足万里, 1778~1851), the Confucian scholar and scientist, owned “Beginsels der Natuurkunde (The Principle of Physics), 1739” by Petrus van Musschenbroek. He could have found words “Wysbegeerte (i.e. philosophy)” or “Philosophie” by reading the preface of the book.Yōan Udagawa (宇田川榕庵, 1798~1846) was a person who studied Western sciences by means of the Dutch language and a researcher at the Bakufu’s Institute for Western Learning in Yedo (nowadays Tokyo). He learned about “philosophia” and “metaphysica” by reading a handwritten copy of the “Seigakubon” (「西学凡」) by Giulio Aleni (艾儒略), an Italian Jesuit, in the Ming Dynasty. Rokuzo Shibukawa, (渋川六蔵,1815~51), the apprentice scholar at the Research Institute for Western Learning, translated the Dutch Words “philosofie” or “filosofy” into “費録所家”.Amane Nishi (西 周, 1829~97), the apprentice scholar at the “Bansho shirabesho” (i.e. the Research Institute for Western Learning), had slight knowledge of Western philosophy presumably by reading “A Biographical History of Philosophy, 1845-1846) by G. H. Lewis. Prior to his departure for Holland in a bid for studying Western humane studies in the last days of the Tokugawa regime, he sent a letter, desiring to learn Western philosophy, to Prof. J. J. Hoffman at Leiden University, mentioning Descartes, Hegel, Kant etc. In Leiden, Nishi and his fellow student, Mamichi Tsuda (津田真道, 1829~1903), took private lessons under Prof. Vissering, studying mainly politics, economics and international law and so on for 2 years.While working for the new government after the collapse of the Tokugawa regime, Nishi ran a private school named “Ikueisha” (育英社) in Asakusa, Tokyo from 1870 to 1873, teaching his students about some Western philosophers and their theories. In his lecture he referred to kant’s critique of cognition and his transcedental Reinen Vernunft as well. The name of Kant was expressed “韓圖” or “坎徳” in Chinese characters at that time.