Disciplines:  Philosophy, Ethics

College:  Kansas City Kansas Community College

Title of unit:

      Japanese Ethics

 Sectioned according to the chapters in the textbook.

Course for which unit is being prepared:

       Philosophy 206:  Introduction to Ethics

Description of target audience:

      Kansas City Kansas Community College is a public, urban community college.  It is a very diverse community with 33 % minority group members, with 63% women.  The college is strongly committed to multicultural understanding.  The department of philosophy has as a primary objective of educating the students to be active participants and agents of positive, effective influence as citizens in the community.

Required textbook:    

      Nina Rosenstand.  The Moral of the Story:  An Introduction to Ethics. Fourth Edition.  Boston:  McGraw Hill, 2003.

Nature of this particular course:

     The textbook was selected by the philosophy department because of its appeal in illustrating ethical issues through many excerpts from films and literature.  The use of “story” as the key paradigm for ethical discussion and decision making reflects the philosophical and ethical perspectives of Martha Nussbaum and others who view the study of “living or life stories” as having personal growth significance.

Goals of unit:

     The goals of the unit include an initial presentation of the ethical perspectives elucidated in Thomas Kasulis’s book Intimacy or Integrity:  Philosophy and Cultural Difference.  With that initial understanding, various ethical topics would be studied comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between Western and Japanese ethics.

Introduction to material  ( background knowledge a faculty member might need to know to understand the progression of material):

     The faculty member is encouraged to read as much material as possible, as indicated in the bibliography.  An essential initial reading for the discussion of ethics would be in Kasulis’s book Intimacy or Integrity, as well as in Kasulis’s outline discussion of Japanese philosophy in the Routledge Encyclopedia articles.

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Readings in the form of books or excerpts that will be given to the students:

     Since a study of Japanese philosophy and ethics assumes some knowledge of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism, the students will be encouraged to browse world religions books and websites.  I would anticipate showing a film like Seppuku (Harakiri, director Kobayashi Masaki (1962) for its many ethical issues.

Prereading assignments.

      How important is it to build and to maintain personal relationships?  To what degree are these relationships to influence and to determine my choices and my behavior?  What meanings do the words ‘integrity’ and ‘intimacy’ denote and connote for you?

      What is the meaning of tolerance?  Should sympathetic understanding of your views prevent me from expressing my different views from you and also from seeking to engage you in discussion to persuade you to think differently?

     Research material to discover the detailed reasons for the proscription of Christianity in Japan in the 17^th century.  What imperial and expansionist issues complicated the missionary intentions?  What were areas of religious cultural clash between Christianity and Japanese religion and politics?

      What are various Buddhist views regarding death?  How might such views condition attitudes toward suicide and abortion?

      Can Shikibu Murasaki be considered a feminist philosopher?  In what sense was she an existentialist?

      What was The Rape of Nanjing, and when did it occur?

     Were the uses of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki justified?

     Compare and contrast the sexual mores of the samurai and the ancient Spartan military.

Classroom activities:

     An attempt will be made to invite at least two native Japanese persons currently living in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.  My contact for locating these people will be the  office of the Japanese Consulate General at Kansas City located in Commerce Tower (911 Main).  Telephone:  (816) 471-0111.  The consulate should be able to suggest persons and resources that would interest the students in this ethics class..

Sections of videos such as JAPAN narrated by Jane Seymour would be used as well as excerpts from Japanese anime.

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Writing assignments and examination questions:

        Write a short paper of five pages on an ethical topic of your choice comparing how this issue would be discussed and decided by you and by a native Japanese person.

Time of course:

      Minimum of two weeks.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kodansha’s Encyclopedia of Japan.  Tokyo:  Kodansha, 1983.

Varley, Paul.  Japanese Culture.  Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Japan, hosted by Jane Seymour

    4 videos (1987)

           Vol. One – “The Electronic Tribe”

           Vol. Two – “The Sword and Chrysanthemum”

           Vol. Three – “The Legacy of the Shogun”

           Vol. Four –  “A Proper Place in the World”

Moore, Charles A., editor.  The Japanese Mind.  Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press, 1967.

Fujisawa, Chikao.  Zen and Shinto.  New York:  Philosophical Library, 1959.

Watt, Paul.  “Shinto & Buddhism:  Wellsprings of Japanese Spirituality.”  In Asia Society’s Focus On Asian Studies, Vo. II, No. 1 Asian Religions.  (Fall 1982):   21-23.

Hurst, III, G.  Cameron.  “The Enigmatic Japanese Spirit.”  Orbis 42, 2 (Spring 1998):  301-323.

Kitaro, Hishida  An Inquiry into the Good

Tetsuro, Watsuji  Climate and Culture, 1988

Jaroslav Pelikan, Joseph Kitagawa, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.  Comparative Work Ethics:  Judeo-Christian, Islamic, and Eastern.    Washington:  Library of Congress, 1985.

Carter,  Robert E.   Encounter with Enlightenment. A Study of Japanese Ethics.  Albany:  State University of New York Press, 2001.

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MULTICULTURALISM – RELIGIOUS CONFLICT

Schwartz, Barry.  “Tolerance:  Should We Approve of It, Put Up with It, or Tolerate It?”

Academe 82 (May/June 1996):  24-28.

Boxer, Charles R.  The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1951.

Elison, George.  Deus Destroyed:  The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan.  Cambridge, Mass:  Harvard University Press, 1973.

Laures, J/  The Catholic Church in Japan.  Notre Dame, 1962.

Mullins, Mark R.  Christianity Made in Japan.  Honolulu:  University of Hawai’I Press, 1998.

Mullins, Mark R., editor.  Handbook of Christianity in Japan  2003.

Milton, Giles.  Samurai William:  The Englishman Who Opened the East.  Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2003.

Niebuhr, H. Richard.  Christ and Culture.  New York:  Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1951.

Endo, Shusaka.  Silence.  New York:  Taplinger, 1979.

KASULIS, THOMAS  P. (1948 - )

Kasulis, Thomas P.  Intimacy or Integrity:  Philosophy and Cultural Difference.

Honolulu:  University of Hawai’I Press, 2002.

Kasulis, T. P.  Zen Action Zen Person.  Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press, 1981.

Kasulis, Thomas P.  (1998). “ Japanese philosophy.”  In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  London:  Routledge.  Retrieved December 15,2003, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/acticle/G100

Kasulis, T. P. “Zen Buddhism, Freud, and Jung.”  The Eastern Buddhist, NS 10, 1 (May1977): 68-91.

Kasulis, Thomas P. “Truth, Zen, Aquinas, Aristotle“ Philosophy East and West 30 (October 1980)  (Need to check for exact title of article)

Kasulis, Thomas P..  “Intimacy:  A General Orientation in Japanese Religious Values.”

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Philosophy East and West 40 (October 1990:  433-449).

Kasulis, Thomas P.  “Kukai (774-835):  Philosophizing in the Archaic, “ in Myth and Philosophy, ed. Frank E. Reynolds and David Tracy (Albany:  State University of New York Press, 1990), pp.  131-150.

Kasulais, Thomas P.  “Researching the Strata of the Japanese Self,” in Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice, ed.  Roger T. Ames, Wimal Dissanayake, and Thomas P. Kasulis (Albany:  State University of New York Press, 1994).  P. 98-99

Kasulis, Thomas P.  “Sushi, Science, and Spirituality:  Modern Japanese Philosophy and Its Views of Western Science”  Philosophy East and West 45 (April 1995):  227-248.

Roger T. Ames, Wimal Dissanayake, and Thomas P. Kasulis (eds.)  Self as Body in Asian Theory and Practice.  Albany:  SUNY Press, 1993.

Roger T. Ames, Wimal Diassanayake, and Thomas P. Kasulis (eds.)  Self as Person in Asian Theory and Practice.  Albany:  SUNY Press, 1994.

Roger T. Ames, Wimal Dissanayake, and Thomas P. Kasulis (eds.)  Self as Image in Asian Theory and Practice.  Albany:  SUNY Press, 1998.

PHILOSOPHY EAST AND WEST – Some articles relating to ethics

Nagami, Isamu.  “The ontological foundation in Tetsuro Watsuji’s philosophy:  Ku and human existence.”  Philosophy East and West 31, 3 (July 1981):  279-296.

McLaren, Ronald.  “Kawaiso, justice and reciprocity:  Themes in Japanese and Western Ethics.”  Philosophy East and West 34, 1 (January 1984):  53-66.

Rajapakse, Vijitha.  “Buddhism in Huxleh’s Evolution and Ethics:  A Note on a Victorian Evaluation of Its ‘Comparativist Dimension’”  Philosophy East and West  35, 3 (July 1985): 295-304.

Reasoner, Paul.  “Sincerity and Japanese Values” Philosophy East and West 40

(October 1990):471-488.

MacIntyre, Alasdair.  “Individual and Social Morality in Japan and the United States:  Rival Conceptions of the Self.”  Philosophy East and West 40 (October 1990): 489-498.

Wargo, Robert J. J.  “Japanese Ethics:  Beyond Good and Evil”  Philosophy East and West  40 (October 1990):  499-510.

Hurst, III, G.  Cameron.  “Death, Honor, and Loyalty:  The Bushido Ideal.”  Philosophy East and West 40 (October 1990):  511-528.

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LaFleur, William R.  “Contestation and Consensus:  The Morality of Abortion in Japan.”

Philosophy East and West  40 (October 1990):  529-542.

Becker, Carl B.  “Buddhist Views of Suicide and Euthanasia.”  Philosophy East and West 40 (October 1990):  543-

Kimura, Kiyotaka.  “The Self in Medieval Japanese Buddhism:  Focusing on Dogen.”  Philosophy East and West 41, 3 (July 1991):  327-340.

Odin, Steve.  “The Social Self in Japanese Philosophy and American Pragmatism:  A Comparative Study of Watsuji Tetsuro and George Herbert Mead.”  Philosophy East and West  42, 3, 1992:  475-501.

Heine, Steven.  “History, Transhitory, and Narrative History:  A Postmodern View of Nishitani’s Philosophy of Zen.”  Philosophy East and West 44(April 1994):  251-278.

Elwood, Brian D.  “The Problem of the Self in the Later Hishida and in Sartre.”  Philosophy East and West 44 (April 1994):  303-316.

Tucker, John Allen.  “Two Mencian Political Notions in Tokugawa Japan.”  Philosophy East and West 47,2, 1997:  233-253.

Parks, Graham.  “The Putative Fascism of the Kyoto School and the Political Correctness of the Modern Academy.”  Philosophy East and West  47,3, 1997: 305-336.

Nosco, Peter, Guest Editor.  “Special Issue-The Religious Dimension of Confucianism in Japan”  Philosophy East and West 48 (January 1998)

Heisig, James W.  “Non-I and Thou:  Nishida, Buber, and the Moral Consequences of Self-Actualization.”  Philosophy East and West 50 (April 2000):  179-207.

Chan, Joseph.  “Moral Autonomy, Civil Liberties, and Confucianism.”  Philosophy East and West 52 (July 2002):  281-310.

PERSONS AND RIGHTS

Florida, R. E.   “Buddhist Approaches to Abortion.”  Asian Philosophy 1.1 (1991):  39-50.

Desmond, Joan Frowley.  “Apologizing to the Babies.”  First Things (October, 1996).

LsFleur, W. A.  Liquid Life:  Abortion and Buddhism in Japan.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1992.

Bays, Jan Chozen.  Jizo Bodhisattva

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Parfit, Derek.  Reasons and Persons.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1984.

Lamotte. E.  “Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism,”  Buddhist Studies Review 4:105-126.

Lecso, P.A.  “Euthanasia:  A Buddhist Perspective,”  Journal of Religion and Health  25:51-57.

EXISTENTIALIALIST ETHICS

Gall, Robert S.  “Kami and Daimon:  A Cross-Cultural Reflection on what is Divine.”

Philosophy East and West 49 (January 1999)

Murasaki, Shikibu.  Tale of Genji, a Novel in Six Parts.  New York:  Modern Library, 1960.  Translated by Arthur Waley.

An animated version of Genji was produced in 1987 as a joint production of Asahi Publishing, the Asahi National Broadcasting Company, and Nippon Herold Films.  It is available on video.

FINAL COMMENTS

The Japanese unit material would be sectioned topically according to the chapters in the ethics text.  For example, when studying duty ethics, Japanese Confucianism would be considered.