The Social Self in Japanese Philosophy and American Pragmatism: A Comparative Study of Watsuji Tetsuro and George Herbert Mead

Abstract

The Japanese notion of ie (family, household) has in modern times come to represent the generalized idea of group-consciousness. Scholarly writings in the area classified as Nihonjinron (studies of Japanese uniqueness), notably works by cultural anthropologist Nakane Chie, have pointed to the group-consciousness of the ie system as a defining characteristic of Japanese society. Indeed, it is now commonplace in the recent proliferation of Nihonjinron texts to characterize Japanese corporate society in terms of such notions as familism, groupism, Japan, Inc., and so forth. However, in this study I will seek to locate the structural basis of ie or familial group-consciousness in the Japanese concept of the person. Toward this end I undertake a textual analysis of Rinrigaku (Ethics) (1937) by Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), wherein he elaborates a Confucian/Zen model of the self as a network of familial and social rela-