Plato's socrates and soseki's sensei

Natsume S seki's novel Kokoro (1914) offers an indictment of the loneliness and isolation of a modernized Japan, a Japan in which people ‘feel cut off from every other living thing’. In this essay, I argue that Plato and S seki offer analogous critiques of an eradicated honor culture; an eradication that is rooted in the political exchange of honorific autonomy for honorific heteronomy. Moreover, I suggest that the deprecation and subsequent demise of the Japanese samurai and Greek warrior—individuals for whom self-worth, dignity, and status are rooted in reputation and social regard—exemplify the dramatic cultural shift toward heteronomy. My reading aims to shed light on the rich philosophical connections between seemingly disparate cultures and texts through an exposition and exegesis of the master-protagonists Socrates and Sensei. Cameron Hurst, III, Dr David Jones, John Lee, and Professor Henry Wright. Notes Though ‘kokoro’ (or ‘shin’) denotes ‘mind’, ‘heart’, ‘sensibility’, ‘soul’ and ‘essence’, used in a philosophical sense it signifies consciousness or the center of intelligence or sentience. Ikegami (Citation1998, p.25) aptly describes the decline of honorific autonomy in modern Japan in The Taming of the Samurai (hereafter abbreviated TS). Ibid., p. 7. A corollary consequence of the privileging of social harmony above individual honor is the valuing of life at any cost, even above honorable death. As Hurst (Citation1990) argues, Tokugawa samurai ‘internalized the Confucian virtues and served as a moral exemplar for the farmer, artisan, and merchant.’ Business contracts replace what were once oral agreements and social customs with contractual language and institutional practices; ibid. This passage appears at the end of part two, where Sensei acknowledges that he has received two or three letters from his young protégé. He admits that distracting obsession with ‘what to do with himself’ delays his reply. After wrestling with his own sense of self, he responds in a letter that serves a final testament of his life. See p. 121. Plato describes Socrates as an ‘able and courageous’ hoplite who serves in at least three campaigns: Potidaea, Amphipolis, and Delium. Alcibiades reports that Socrates ‘protected his arms’ in battle. And the soldier's equipment, especially his hoplon (shield) is a source of great pride. The most esteemed property of the samurai was his sword, which the Meiji government prohibits samurai from bans carrying in public. For an extensive analysis of ‘namelessness’ in Kokoro, see Grafflin (1985, pp. 146–150). Karl Jasper describes the Socratic choice this way: ‘The essential for man is to risk living as though he knew the good exists.’ See Jaspers (Citation1962, p. 10)

Art · Dignity · Honorific · Literature · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Psychology

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