“The Myriads of People Are All One”: Andō Shōeki’s Self-with-Others

Abstract

Japanese Edo period thinker Andō Shōeki 安藤昌益 (1703-1762) was one of the most mysterious figures in the intellectual landscape of his time. Very little is known about his life, and only fragments of his writings have survived to this day. His most important work, Shizen shin’eidō 自然真営 道, presents a vision of the world of nature which is completely nonanthropocentric, thus providing numerous clues and hints for environmental ethics and ecology.

Keywords

• andō shōeki
• edo period
• japanese philosophy
• nature
• way of nature
• “direct cultivation”
• “self-with-others”