近代日本の文明観に関する一考察 - 『文明論之概略』を中心に -

Abstract

Yukichi Fukuzawa’s conception of civilization, as can be seen in his book Bunmeiron-no Gairyaku, is to connect the development of civilization with the ease and comfort of humans and also connect the development of elegance with that of knowledge. That is, it is conceived of as the realization of human rights in the category of society/nation. The primary goal of Fukuzawa’s life- long enlightening activity is the civilization of Japan, more concretely to introduce various mental values inherent to the western world to Japan and to foster them in the society of Japan. In this way, Fukuzawa, who argues for the civilization of Modern Japan, made a number of important achievements among Japanese thinkers during the Meiji and the post-Meiji eras, and no one has probably been taken up in articles and books more frequently than him. Further, through the introduction of Western concepts such as freedom, equality, and independence to Japan, he attempted to accomplish the civilization of Japan and the mental independence of Japanese people. Although Fukuzawa can be researched from various perspectives relating the society of Japan, we focus on Fukuzawa’s view on civilizations through the analysis of Bunmei-ron no Gairyaku, his authored book which had a great impact on the modernization of Japan. This enquiry will lead us to capture transitions of concepts pertaining to the view on civilization in the history of Modern Japan, and it will also derive some consequences for the analysis of universal views on civilizations in Modern Japan.