Nature and time have long been key concepts of educational thought. Educational thinkers from both the East and the West have tried to imitate and follow nature. They have also considered time in relation to human formation and growth. This article attempts to connect these two key concepts of education through the medium of the seasons. The seasons bridge both time and nature. Our experience of nature is temporal and manifests itself in the transition of the seasons. On the other (...) hand, our experience of time is conditioned by the seasons. Seasons are a concrete manifestation of time and nature. It seems that philosophy has not paid enough attention to this. In this article, Japanese arts are used as the examples of how the arts can help to form our sensibility toward the seasons, which has ethical and educational implications. The article also asks questions about contemporary environmental discussions that, in the aspiration to be global and universal, often overlook concrete experience of the seasons conditioned by local climate. (shrink)

This article aims to elucidate the educational significance of the traditional communitarian theories of the East and the West. For this purpose, it will set out to compare the moral and educationa...

The electron double-slit interference is re-examined from the point of view of temporal topos. Temporal topos (or t-topos) is an abstract algebraic (categorical) method using the theory of sheaves. A brief introduction to t-topos is given. When the structural foundation for describing particles is based on t-topos, the particle-wave duality of electron is a natural consequence. A presheaf associated with the electron represents both particle-like and wave-like properties depending upon whether an object in the site (t-site) is specified (particle-like) or (...) not (wave-like). It is shown that the localization of the electron at one of the slits is equivalent to choosing a particular object in the t-site and that the electron behaves as a wave when it passes through a double-slit because there are more than one object in the t-site. Also, the single-slit diffraction is interpreted as a result of the possibility of many different ways of factoring a morphism between two objects. (shrink)

Volume 52, Issue 8, July 2020, Page 836-837.

Coping flexibility, as defined by the dual-process theory, refers to one’s ability to relinquish a coping strategy recognized as ineffective—abandonment—and to devise and implement an alternative and more effective strategy—re-coping. The coping flexibility hypothesis dictates that richer coping flexibility produces more adaptive outcomes caused by stress responses, such as reduced psychological and physical dysfunction. We tested the reliability and validity of the Coping Flexibility Scale-Revised and the CFH using the CFS-R, which was developed to measure coping flexibility. In total, we (...) performed three studies involving 6,752 participants. Study 1 provided the psychometric properties of the CFS-R and tested this factorial structure by a confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 estimated the validity of the CFS-R by examining the associations between its three subscales and variables that were conceptually similar to them. Study 3 tested the CFH using a longitudinal design after controlling for the effects of typical coping strategies and other types of coping flexibility. Overall, the CFH was supported by the use of the CFS-R, and the findings in Studies 2 and 3 showed that it had acceptable validity and reliability. Our findings implied that abandonment and re-coping can predict reduced depressive symptoms more than other types of theoretical framings for coping flexibility. Additionally, a meta-analysis of the Cronbach’s alphas for all samples in this study showed that they were 0.87 for abandonment, 0.92 for re-coping, and 0.86 for meta-coping. (shrink)

As evidenced by high-throughput sequencers, genomic technologies have recently undergone radical advances. These technologies enable comprehensive sequencing of personal genomes considerably more efficiently and less expensively than heretofore. These developments present a challenge to the conventional framework of biomedical ethics; under these changing circumstances, each research project has to develop a pragmatic research policy. Based on the experience with a new large-scale project—the Genome Science Project—this article presents a novel approach to conducting a specific policy for personal genome research in (...) the Japanese context. In creating an original informed-consent form template for the project, we present a two-tiered process: making the draft of the template following an analysis of national and international policies; refining the draft template in conjunction with genome project researchers for practical application. Through practical use of the template, we have gained valuable experience in addressing challenges in the ethical review process, such as the importance of sharing details of the latest developments in genomics with members of research ethics committees. We discuss certain limitations of the conventional concept of informed consent and its governance system and suggest the potential of an alternative process using information technology. (shrink)

In Plato's "Hippias Major" 292e6-7, we can find a self-predication sentence; "The fine is always fine." (We have similar expressions in "Protagoras" 330c4-6, 330d8-el, "Lysis" 220b6-7.) How should we interpret this sentence? We cannot give it any metaphysical meaning drawn from Plato's own theory of Form, which is explicit in his middle dialogues. "The fine" here should be the logical cause, not the one of the metaphysical essentials (cf. Paul Woodruff's "Plateo Hippias Major", p. 150). So taking a sentence like (...) "parthenos kale kalon" (287e4), we can safely paraphrase it in Woodruff's manner: "a fine girl is a fine thing." This can avoid reading the metaphysical meaning into the text. And I would like to make a new proposal for reading of 292e6-7: "the fine thing is what is to be called fine." This is to emphasize the unique character of the self-predication sentences in the early dialogues. In the Socratic way of discourse, Socrates and his partner get involved into "trial and error" during their pursuit of the knowledge. What they can do then is to give their opinions which seem to them true (so-called alethes doxa", cf. "Meno" 85c), and to get close examinations of them. And in this way they are getting closer to the knowledge. My interpretation well describes these activities. (shrink)

The psychological gap based on distrust and mutual ignorance between the Islamic world and the rest of the world, including Japan, has never been wider than it is today. Some might think that Islamic and other civilizations share little common ground in terms of basic values concerning humanity. Some even claim that “the clash of civilizations” is inevitable. However, it is too early to conclude that these civilizations will always be in conflict with each other. Although their theological interpretations of (...) God and the teachings of their religions show clear contrasts, there might be some common values that they can share in social life. One of the most prestigious and well-known Islamic boarding schools or Pesantren in Indonesia, Al-Mukumin of Solo in Central Java, offers fundamentalist education. Yet, the students in this school still learn about the importance of co-existence with non-Muslims through social activities and classroom instructions. Multiculturalism and the appreciation of non-Muslims are clearly emphasised in the curriculum. Based on the field research conducted in January 2013, I will attempt to picture the state of Islamic education in Indonesia and identify some values common to Islamic and other civilizations, such as Western and Japanese. (shrink)

The social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) is recently widely debated. Although some Western countries have taken a more favourable course towards these minority groups, we still see a certain level of resistance to same sex marriage and discrimination against LGBT even in normally regarded liberal societies. Islam, which is often believed to clash with so-called Western values, regards LGBT as abhorrent and even apostate. However, we see a new endeavour of LGBT people in the most Muslim populous (...) country in the world, Indonesia. This paper explores the treatment of these minorities in Islam, including the possibility of co-existence of all humans in a future. For this purpose, we consider the activities of this Islamic school in Indonesia and the life history of the students. We also examine both the pro and con of the religious standpoint of the ulamas. We especially pay attention to some of the ulama’s attempts to create a new fiqh (a legal standard for religious rituals and obligations) to accept LGBT. (shrink)

Rhodopsins are one of the most studied photoreceptor protein families, and ion‐translocating rhodopsins, both pumps and channels, have recently attracted broad attention because of the development of optogenetics. Recently, a new functional class of ion‐pumping rhodopsins, an outward Na+ pump, was discovered, and following structural and functional studies enable us to compare three functionally different ion‐pumping rhodopsins: outward proton pump, inward Cl− pump, and outward Na+ pump. Here, we review the current knowledge on structure‐function relationships in these three light‐driven pumps, (...) mainly focusing on Na+ pumps. A structural and functional comparison reveals both unique and conserved features of these ion pumps, and enhances our understanding about how the structurally similar microbial rhodopsins acquired such diverse functions. We also discuss some unresolved questions and future perspectives in research of ion‐pumping rhodopsins, including optogenetics application and engineering of novel rhodopsins. (shrink)

Background Advance care planning (ACP) is a process in which adults engage in an ongoing dialogue about future medical treatment and care. Though ACP is recommended to improve the quality of end-of-life care, the details of the dialogue experience in ACP are unknown. Objective To explore participants’ experiences of dialogue in an ACP educational program that encouraged them to discuss the value of a way of life. Research design This qualitative descriptive study used the focus group interview method. Data were (...) analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Participants and research context A dialogue-based ACP educational program was conducted in four regions in Japan for local citizens to discuss the value of their way of life. A total of 66 individuals (mean age = 55.5 ± 17.2 years; 50 women and 16 men) participated in focus group interviews. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Tokyo Women’s Medical University (no. 4723) and Kyoto University (no. R2099). Findings Five main themes were extracted: discussing one’s thoughts with others in a considerate manner, reflecting on one’s way of life through others, feeling a sense of connection with others through storytelling, realizing the difficulties of talking about “what if” topics, and turning one’s eyes toward the future through the dialogue. These themes were interrelated and illustrated the complexity of the experience of discussing values. Conclusions The results suggest that dialogue in ACP is useful in clarifying values. They also indicated the need for dealing with the ethical challenges of discussing value and the importance of caring for the interlocutor to have a safe dialogue. In the ACP process, safety in dialogue may improve readiness in ACP, and health practitioners who support ACP need to address the ethical challenges entailing dialogue about values. (shrink)

This article investigates differences in structural tendencies between Japanese newspaper editorials and front-page columns. Although intuitively recognized by Japanese people, such differences have tended to be empirically overlooked in discourse or rhetoric research. This study compares the two text types, specifically focusing on the location of the main topic in the text item rather than the main thesis, the former of which has received less empirical attention than the latter in Japanese discourse research. The study analyzed 30 editorials and 30 (...) front-page columns from three major Japanese newspapers. The results show that the editorials have an early placement pattern, whereas the columns tend to have delayed introductions. These differences were statistically significant, empirically demonstrating how the intuitively recognized structural tendencies between the two text types crucially differ. The finding that there is a systematic early placement of the main topic in Japanese editorials is indicative of a basic common feature among languages in the editorial genre. From a methodological perspective, the study demonstrates the validity of the index of the main topic location as an analytical tool to distinguish different textual structures. (shrink)

This questionnaire-based observational study was conducted in July 2020 with the aim of understanding the ethical and social issues faced by health care providers (HCPs) registered with the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine in intensive care units (ICUs) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. There were 200 questionnaire respondents, and we analyzed the responses of 189 members who had been involved in COVID-19 treatment in ICUs. The ethical and social issues that HCPs recognized during the pandemic were difficulties in (...) the decision-making process with patients’ families, limitations of life-sustaining treatment, lack of palliative care, and inadequate mental support for patients’ families and HCPs. Regarding decision-making on issues of clinical ethics during the pandemic, more than half of the respondents thought they had failed to provide sufficient palliative care to patients and responded that they experienced moral distress. The free-text responses on moral distress revealed issues such as unusual treatment and care, restricted visits, challenging situations for HCPs, and psychological burden. Additionally, 38.1% of respondents experienced episodes of social prejudice or discrimination and 4.7% experienced a shortage of medical resources. Our study result shows that the moral distress of HCPs was caused by difficulties in patient-centered decision-making and insufficient medical care to patients and their families. These were caused mainly by a lack of communication due to the stronger implementation of infection control measures. We believe that it is important to address ethical and social issues during a pandemic in order to provide appropriate medical care and prevent burnout among HCPs. (shrink)

The aim of this presentation is to show that philosophy of education must seriously engage itself with horizons of education. After a brief explanation of the term “horizon”, the horizon of modern pedagogy, which was inaugurated by Pestalozzi and Herbart, is examined. Modern pedagogy with its special emphasis on method unravels itself as one of the major streams of modern epistemology, for which inspection of inner ideas is crucial. The modern epistemology, on the other hand, presupposes the atomistic self represented (...) by the Lockian dark room. This is the horizon of modern pedagogy. One of the deficiencies of this horizon is that it is not capable of articulating the educational aim on its own terms. Thus, dealing with the aim of education, modern pedagogy was obliged to use terms such as God or Nature, the terms, of which philosophical origin goes back to the Cave metaphor of Plato. This takes us to the second part of the presentation: the examination of the Cave metaphor in order to unravel the horizon of the classical education, paideia. The comparison of the two horizons will show the importance of horizon, about which philosophy of education must be sensitive. (shrink)

In this short article, I attempt to examine the environmental philosophy and activity of a Japanese intellectual giant, Minakata Kumagusu. In Japan, he is called by the first name, Kuma...

Weather imagery plays a major role in Hosea. Hosea 2 recalls the image of an unfaithful wife; Hosea 4:2-3 describes the withering of the land; in 6:3; 10:12; 14:6, the several types of precipitation draw attention to the utterance of YHWH or the requested righteousness; in 9:10.13.16; 10:1; 13:5; 14:6.8, Israel is symbolised by different plants that blossom and wither, depending on their relation to Yhwh. In all of these instances, weather phenomena contribute to these images. In this article, I (...) try to catalogue and evaluate the metaphors and concepts to look at how meteorological images convey theological and historical messages, and vice versa how historical events or sociological procedures demonstrate their consequences in nature, especially in the weather. It seems that weather imagery is used to describe the consequences of idolatry, injustice and false politics. These cause drought and famine in a concrete sense, but the withering of Israel figuratively, the last word of the book is a call for repentance that could ensure Israel's well-being once again. With these metaphors, Hosea explicitly delivers a plea for monolatry and righteousness, as well as for equality, in an implicit way. These pieces of evidence can provide a basis for further interpretation from the hermeneutical perspective of the notion called 'interconnectedness'. CONTRIBUTION: This article analyses the weather imagery of the Book of Hosea and contributes to a better understanding of the use of these metaphors in prophetic discourses. (shrink)

Traces of thoughts. The place of a theology of the Septuagint in biblical scholarship: In the past decades, research has raised the idea of a theology of the Septuagint (LXX) on various occasions. Important works were recently published on this topic in the Handbuch zur Septuaginta and the Septuagint and Cognate Studies series. The general theological tendencies of the LXX are identified by scholars in eschatology, messianism, anti-anthropomorphism and angelology. These tend to all be regarded as further developments of the (...) theology of the Hebrew Bible (HB). However, one can trace the evolution of these and other main topics of the LXX in the New Testament (NT) and in the later apostolic writings as well. Based on three concise case studies, I point out the evolution of theological ideas from the HB through the LXX up to the NT in this paper. First, I will discuss the importance of the ‘Name of God’-theology which is increasingly present in the LXX and has a key role in the messianic passages of the NT. Then in two points it will be argued that addressing Jesus as κύριος implies theological accents which can be detected in the LXX. These observations aim to show that the development of the religious ideologies of the HB can be followed not only in the LXX but in the NT and beyond as well. The importance of a theology of the LXX goes beyond the HB research, having significant implications for the NT as well. In fact, such theology could build the bridge between the HB and the NT, and should not only be written from the viewpoint of the HB but also considering the NT. Contribution: This contribution traces the routes of three theological concepts originating in the Hebrew Bible developed further in the LXX and finally adopted by the New Testament. Based on these three examples, it is suggested here as a novel idea that a theology of the LXX should not be written only with the Hebrew Bible in mind but also considering the New Testament. (shrink)

Chomin Nakae (Japanese thinker,1847-1901) has been called “the Rousseau of the East” by both Japanese and Chinese because he translated Jean-Jacque Rousseau, for instance, the Social Contract into Japanese and Chinese. It would be natural to suppose that Chomin read Rousseau’s books as an overseas student in France from 1872 to 1874 after the time of “ the Paris Commune”. It seems that many Chinese overseas students in Japan read Rousseau’s books in Chinese and Japanese translated by Chomin and accepted (...) democratic and revolutionary thoughts originally born in the West and brought them home. Adding to the fact, it is insisted that the substance of Chomin’s thought is rather Confucian-biased democracy to be governed morally by both people and the sovereign than pure popular supremacy, which was gotten through examining the results of the recent research. (shrink)

It has often been assumed that Plato's Apology is a faithful recreation of Socrates' speech on the final day of his trial in 399 b.c.; that it contains almost nothing of Plato's own philosophy; and that it therefore represents rather the position of the historical Socrates on how to live and how to philosophize. In this belief, Schleiermacher relegated the Apology to an appendix to his translation of Plato, along with some spurious works. His view was followed by Zeller and (...) Grote in the late nineteenth century, and further popularized in the 1920s by Burnet's edition of the Apology. (shrink)

In the past decades, research has raised the idea of a theology of the Septuagint on various occasions. Important works were recently published on this topic in the Handbuch zur Septuaginta and the Septuagint and Cognate Studies series. The general theological tendencies of the LXX are identified by scholars in eschatology, messianism, anti-anthropomorphism and angelology. These tend to all be regarded as further developments of the theology of the Hebrew Bible. However, one can trace the evolution of these and other (...) main topics of the LXX in the New Testament and in the later apostolic writings as well. Based on three concise case studies, I point out the evolution of theological ideas from the HB through the LXX up to the NT in this paper. First, I will discuss the importance of the 'Name of God'-theology which is increasingly present in the LXX and has a key role in the messianic passages of the NT. Then in two points it will be argued that addressing Jesus as κύριος implies theological accents which can be detected in the LXX. These observations aim to show that the development of the religious ideologies of the HB can be followed not only in the LXX but in the NT and beyond as well. The importance of a theology of the LXX goes beyond the HB research, having significant implications for the NT as well. In fact, such theology could build the bridge between the HB and the NT, and should not only be written from the viewpoint of the HB but also considering the NT. CONTRIBUTION: This contribution traces the routes of three theological concepts originating in the Hebrew Bible developed further in the LXX and finally adopted by the New Testament. Based on these three examples, it is suggested here as a novel idea that a theology of the LXX should not be written only with the Hebrew Bible in mind but also considering the New Testament. (shrink)