The human being : when philosophy meets history. Miki Kiyoshi, Watsuji Tetsuro and their quest for a New Ningen

Abstract

This thesis analyses the concept of the 'human being' (ningen) in the philosophies of the two modern Japanese intellectuals Miki Kiyoshi and Watsuji Tetsuro. I demonstrate that their philosophical systems, based on the idea that the creation of a new Japanese human being should have coincided with the establishment of the Japanese empire, colluded with history and were defeated together with Japan in August 1945. Utilizing the religious idea of the escaton, which Miki and Watsuji translated into the ‘moral destiny of victory’ that Japan should have been entitled to, I prove that it is possible for history and philosophy to simultaneously collapse in a time of crisis such as the one of the Second World War.