Watsuji’s Account Of Trust: A Critical And Comparative Analysis
Samedi 4 juin 2016, 14h30-16h00La salle 5.28
I.N.A.L.C.O. - Pôle des Langues et Civilisations 65, rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris Métro 14 et RER C : Bibliothèque François Mitterrand Sortie : rue des Grands Moulins.
Résumé: My presentation will investigate three questions: How plausible and convincing is Watsuji Tetsurō’s account of trust in his Ethics? Is his notion of trust true to contemporary Japanese experiences of trust? Is an eidetic phenomenology of trust, or indeed any phenomenology, possible without cross-cultural analysis and translation? I hope that our discussion will continue the investigation, especially of the second question.
I have written before about Watsuji’s notion of trust, primarily to present his vision of trust sympathetically, in his own terms. On this occasion I will consider his philosophy of trust more critically, with the help of comparative, cross-cultural analysis. I will also consider the possibility of a phenomenology of trust informed by Japanese language and culture. The dual purpose of my paper reflects my vision of comparative philosophy, which has the power to expose unnoticed assumptions and thus to bring clarity to philosophical issues—by way of contrasts. I will be contrasting Watsuji’s philosophy of trust with that of some contemporary philosophers in North America, primarily with Anthony Steinbock’s eidetic phenomenology of trust in his stimulating book, Moral Emotions.
