Modern Trend of Western Civilization and the Cultural Peculiarities of Japan

Abstract

Standing at the beginning of a new age of technology, we are confronted inevitably with a hitherto unexperienced change in every aspect of human civilization. We must now take into account the possibility that, just as human labor and skill have been almost completely replaced by mechanistic apparatus in the domain of experimental physics, so most of the labor and skill of the human brain may be replaced by electronic computers. The rational understanding of the physical data obtained by experimentation has long been conceived as being essentially a problem of the inner activity of the human power of thinking. It has now become possible that many of these problems can be projected outside the realm of inner human activity. In the future, mankind may be able to be proud only of the human ability of devising complicated computing mechanisms. Technocracy is now threatening the nucleus of the human spirit. This is a natural and at the same time a necessary outcome of the European mode of rational thinking, which has been so effective in establishing the machine civilization. In this development, the Eastern mode of thinking was evidently destined to exert a negative influence. But, now that the future of Western rationalism seems not to be a delightful one, we notice the rise of the hope that the Eastern tradition will play a complementary part in the future development of world civilization. The Western mode of living is characterized, in a broad sense, by confrontation with external conditions, whereas the Eastern mode is characterized by adaptation to these. According to the former attitude, human living is destined to be positive or adventurous, both in action and in thought. This was the very origin of the rational and abstract mode of thinking, and, moreover, the active and dynamic approach to natural phenomena by experimentation gave rise to modern scientific civilization. Rationalism is a pattern of thinking which inquires into everything in terms of an ensemble of complementary possibilities. The peculiarity of the Japanese mode of thinking lies in a complete neglect of complementary alternatives. This we may call Japanese irrationalism. Of course, this is completely foreign to any form of scientific spirit, but it is identical neither with absolutism nor with skepticism. Moreover,