Sociologist Takebe Tongo — the Japanese Interpreter of August Comte’s Positive Theory

Abstract

The article considers the views of one of the brightest representatives of Japanese academic sociology Takebe Tongo. In his work he tried to combine the social philosophy of Auguste Comte and social ideals of Confucianism. The ideas of the French scientist are interpreted by Takebe from conservative and even nationalistic point of view. Using Comte’s constructive principles of ‘positive society’ and trying to harmoniously combine them with the postulates of Confucianism, the Japanese sociologist created the concept of ‘Japanese positive society’. The positivistic thesis, according to which any society exists by natural laws, Takebe supplemented with the Eastern, Japanese conviction of patriarchal essence of State. Adopting some Comte’s ideas, Takebe tried to fill them with concrete content of traditional Eastern views. The ‘Concreteness’ of thinking, one of specific features of the Far Eastern cultures, is expressed in written language — Chinese characters, which had a great impact on the process of adopting and assimilation of Western abstract way of thinking. At the same time Western impact couldn’t lead to the demolition of the stereotypes of traditional social views in Japan because such stereotypes had been utilized as the basement for preserving the spiritual solidarity of the Japanese population by national ideologists as Takebe Tongo.