Prof. dr. Chris S. Goto-Jones
Professor of Comparative Philosophy and Political Thought
Dean of Leiden University College The Hague
Arsenaalstraat 1, PO Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)71-5272543, Fax: +31-(0)71-5272526
E-Mail: c.goto-jones@mearc.eu
Introduction
My main research interests revolve around questions of philosophy in Modern Japan, with a particular focus on issues in the history of political and ethical thought. I am not only interested in utilising these fields as tools for the understanding of Modern Japan itself, but I am also interested in the ways in which Japanese intellectual traditions can intersect, engage and enter into dialogue with Euro-American traditions of thought. In practice, this means that I attempt to locate my work simultaneously within both Asian Studies discourses and within more mainstream ‘disciplinary’ fields. The ultimate goal, of course, must be the convergence of these types of study, in order to confront the spectre of ethnocentricity.
A key problem in the phrasing of my research is the question of what it means to study Modern Japan. In my work, I interpret this complex compound in a constellation of ways: firstly, my ‘Japan’ is concerned with the ideas and institutions produced and inhabited by the Japanese people; secondly, ‘modern’ has temporal implications, relating to a historical period that commences (approximately) with the bakumatsu period (ie. mid-nineteenth century); and thirdly, ‘modern’ has methodological implications, relating to the need for modern scholarship in so-called ‘Area Studies’ to engage seriously with the rigorous demands of the mainstream academic disciplines.
Current Projects
At present I am working on several projects:
- Conducting a 5-year research project funded by a 1.25 million euro 'VICI' grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), entitled: Beyond Utopia -- New Politics, the Politics of Knowledge, and the Science Fictional Field of Japan.
- Writing a monograph on themes of ethics, violence, honour and death in Japanese intellectual traditions, focussing on the often misunderstood notion of bushidō. The book will be published by Cambridge University Press as Warrior Ethics in Japan: Bushidō as Intellectual History.
- Writing a series of articles on the concept of
penitence
amongst postwar Japanese intellectuals.
Please follow the links below for more details.
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