Nishi Amane

Japanese: 西周 - にし・あまね

Year of death: January 31, 1897
Year of birth: 1829.3.7 (Bunsei 12.2.3)
Enlightenment thinker and Japan's first Western philosopher. Professor at the Shogunate Kaiseisho, president of the Tokyo Academy, principal of Tokyo Normal School, councilor in the House of Peers, and imperially appointed member of the House of Peers. The eldest son of a doctor from Tsuwano Domain, Iwami Province (Shimane Prefecture). His father was Tokiyoshi and his mother was Kane. He studied Zhu Xi philosophy at a young age and was inspired by Ogyu Sorai. After Perry's arrival, he realized the need for Dutch and Western studies, and escaped from the domain to study Dutch studies, learned English from Sugita Seikei and Tezuka Ritsuzo, and learned English pronunciation from Nakahama Manjiro. As a Shogunate student, he studied law, economics, statistics, etc. under Simon Vissering at Leiden University in the Netherlands, but was inspired by the philosophies of JS Mill and A. Comte. After the Meiji Restoration, he was invited by the Meiji government to work for the Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of Education, while opening a private school called Ikuei-sha. He played an active role in the founding of the Meirokusha Society (1874). He felt the need for a unified understanding of all academic fields in order to educate the young people of the new era, and in "One Hundred and One New Theory" (1874) he called this attempt at a unified science "philosophy." His philosophy was modeled on the positivist philosophies of Mill and Comte, and he aimed to build an academic system that built social science and humanities on the foundation of natural science. He sought the principles that would link these sciences together in physics and psychology, science and art, Comte's three-stage theory of history, Mill's method of induction, etc., but it was left unfinished. Later he shifted his interest to the theory of human nature and developed a theory of humanity. He translated many philosophical terms, including subject, object, concept, idea, reason, understanding, sensibility, deduction, induction, definition, proposition, substance, and attribute. He also participated in military policy under Yamagata Aritomo, and wrote "Draft Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors" (1880). <Works> "Nishi Amane Complete Works," 4 volumes <References> Koizumi Akira, "Nishi Amane's Encounter with Western Thought"

(Koizumi Akira)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治30.1.31(1897)
生年：文政12.2.3(1829.3.7)
啓蒙思想家,日本最初の西洋哲学者。幕府開成所教授,東京学士会院会長,東京師範学校校長,元老院議官,貴族院勅選議員。石見国(島根県)津和野藩の医家の長男。父は時義,母はカネ。若くして朱子学を学び,荻生徂徠にも啓発された。ペリーの来航によって蘭学,洋学の必要を悟り,脱藩して蘭学を学び,英学を杉田成卿,手塚律蔵に学び,英語の発音を中浜万次郎に学んだ。幕府留学生としてオランダのライデン大学でシモン・フィッセリングに師事し,法学,経済学,統計学などを学んだが,J.S.ミル,A.コントの哲学に共鳴した。維新後明治政府に招かれ陸軍省,文部省に勤務,かたわら私塾育英舎を開いた。明六社創立(1874)に参加し活躍した。新しい時代の青年を教育するために学問全体の統一的理解の必要を感じ,『百一新論』(1874)でこの統一科学の試みを「哲学」と称した。彼の哲学はミル,コントの実証主義哲学をモデルとし,自然科学の土台の上に社会,人文科学を積み重ねる学問体系を志し,これらの諸科学をつなぐ環となる原理を物理と心理,学と術,コントの歴史3段階説,ミルの帰納法などに求めたが,未完成に終わった。のちに人間性論に関心を移して人間論を展開。彼は主観,客観,概念,観念,理性,悟性,感性,演繹,帰納,定義,命題,実体,属性など多くの哲学用語を訳出。山県有朋の下で軍事政策にも参画し『軍人勅諭草案』(1880)を著した。<著作>『西周全集』全4巻<参考文献>小泉仰『西周と欧米思想との出会い』

(小泉仰)

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