Tomonaga Sanjūrō’s Epistemology of International Relations: The “Self-State-International Relations” Proto-Paradigm in Modern Japan.

Abstract

This is a translation of an essay by Atsushi Shibasaki, which was originally published in Japanese. Shibasaki investigates Japanese intellectual Tomanaga Sanjūrō’s lifelong engagement with Immanuel Kant and the development of the notion of international relations to argue that the process of translation and adaptation of seminal Western philosophical works are not a simple passive reception, but rather an active engagement, the selective nature of which reflects actual local historical and ideological circumstances. Gaynor Sekimori translatedand prepared this text for an English-speaking readership.

Keywords

• intellectual history
• japan
• immanuel kant