Philosophy of Science in Japan

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Philosophy of Science in Japan 1976-1980 The following is a continuation of Professor Heiji Teranaka's report, "Philosophy of Science in Japan 1971-1975" (Annals of the Japan Association for

1 Philosophy of Science in Japan The following is a continuation of Professor Heiji Teranaka's report, "Philosophy of Science in Japan " (Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, Vol. 5, No. 2, March 1977). Since then our studies on the philosophy of science including studies on the philosophy of logic and mathematics have been active, many results of which were issued in the last five years in Japan. We will report their main trends in the following. Even though there were some studies on the philosophy of science from the point of view of dialectical materialism - eg. Theory of Scientific Cognition (Otsuki Shoten, Tokyo, 1976) by Nobutane Iwasaki, a philosopher, & Shohei Miyahara, a physicist, and Scientific Cognition and Dialectic (Azusa Shuppansha, Tokyo, 1979) by N. Iwasaki - and other philosophical standpoints, many studies on it were studies from the point of view of analytic philosophy and modern logic. Many books of `Time' were published by scientists and philosophers of science as well as by philosophers. Shizuo Takiura, a philosopher studying Merleau- Ponty, published Time - a philosophical survey - (Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 1976), which discussed among other things paradox of time, form of time, and words of time. But the paradox of time was more fully discussed by Hidekichi Nakamura, a philosopher of science and logic, in his book Paradox of Time - between philosophy and science - (Chuokoronsha, Tokyo, 1980). It contained many detailed arguments of many topics, suggesting a solution of Zeno's paradox. As Nakamura related in his book, very interesting book on time was published in It was Time and Man (Chuokoronsha, Tokyo) by Satoshi Watanabe, a physicist studying quantum mechanics and information science, and Dorothea Watanabe, his wife and a literator studying German literature. It consisted of three parts. The first chapter was "Time and man", the second was "Time and Buddhism", and the third was "Time and Nature". Satoshi Watanabe wrote the first and the third, and gave a penetrating insight into the nature of time from the point of philosophy of science. He also published an original little book Recognition and Pattern (Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 1978). As to the nature of time, another suggestive insight was given by Mutsuo M. Yanase, an expert physicist on the theory of observation of quantum mechanics and Catholic priest. He proposed to use an old Scholastic concept "aevum" as a field containing both "time" and "space". A sketch of it was given in his article, "A Shock from Quantum Theory and Relativity" in the anthology, Time and Space (Kobundo, Tokyo, 1977) edited by Yoichiro Murakami, a very productive historian and philosopher of science. The anthology consisted of many other fascinating articles. We can find in them "How to see Space and Time in the Theory of Systems" by Haruo Murata, a mathematician: "History of Life and Time" by Annibale Fantoli, a philosopher; "Theory of Visual Space" by Taro Indo, -103-

2 46 Vol. 6 a mathematical psychologist. Another anthology on time appeared. It was Time (Tokyo Daigaku Schuppankai, Tokyo, 1980). In it Shuntaro Ito, a historian and philosopher of science, gave a detailed explanation on the relation between time of being and time of consciousness from various standpoints, and Y. Murakami gave a clear picture of time in classical physics. Time in physcis was also discussed by Shinichi Matsushita, a physicist, in his book, Introductory Survey on Time and Cosmos (Saiensusha, Tokyo, 1980). One of the interests which Y. Murakami had was the nature of time, but another was the mechanism of the theory-change in the history of science. He published four good books on this topic, too. They are as follows: New Philosophy of Science - Can `fact" defeat theory?- (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1979), Science and the Ordinary Day's World (Uminarisha, Tokyo, 1979), Science as a Dynamic Picture of the World (Shinyosha, Tokyo, 1980), and Dynamics of Science - A new model of theory-change - (Saiensusha, Tokyo, 1980). His standpoint was on the line of N.R. Hanson, T. Kuhn, and P. Feyerabend, and he has translated and is translating books of Hanson and Feyerabend. The dynamic aspect of science was also stressed by S. Ito on several occasions from a historical point of view. But the same aspect and the history of the philosophy of science in this line of thought was analysed by Hiroshi Kurosaki, a philosopher of science, from the point of view of L. Wittgenstein, in his book Science and Man - a Wittgensteinean approach - (Keisoshobo, Tokyo, 1977). In it he also discussed the mind-body problem which had been one of the main themes in Japan. As to the mind-body problem, Shozo Omori, a leading philosopher of science, contributed four stimulating articles, "New `New Theory of Vision' -to see and to touch-" (1-4) to a philosophical journal "Riso" (1976), published Matter and Mind (Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, Tokyo, 1976), and contributed a fine article, "Mind" to the anthology, Problems of Mind and Body (Sangyotosho, Tokyo, 1980). In his book and articles, he was trying to demolish dualism and to see the world from the point of view of monism. He asserted that the physical phenomena and the mental ones were two aspects of one and the same world - ordinary day's world - and we had to see the relation between them as a kind of superposition. To the anthology four other articles were contributed by representative and active philosophers. They are Makoto Yamamoto, Tadashi Inoue, Wataru Kuroda, and Wataru Hiromatsu. Above all, W. Hiromatsu was the most active and productive in many fields of philosophy as well as of philosophy of science. The mind-body problem was also discussed by Hyakudai Sakamoto, a philosopher of science, from a different point of view in his book, Philosophy of Mechanical View of Man - mind-body problem and freedom - (Keisoshobo, Tokyo, 1980). He treated the traditional problem from the most modern aspect of science. He has a great interest in philosophy of language, too. He translated J.L. Austin's How To Do -104-

3 No Things with Words and gave a general philosophical account of language in his article, "A Modern Philosophical Survey of Language" in Language and Information 1 (Gakushu Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1976). Under the influence of analytic philosophy many philosophers in Japan have an interest in language and logic. One representative figure of this trend is Nobushige Sawada, former president of The Philosophical Association of Japan. He published Philosophy of Lifescience (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1976) and Logic and Structure of Thought (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1977). In the former he represented a picture of the relation between science and man in the future society and in the latter he argued the relation between pictorial and linguistic thought as well as structure of thought. He also edited the anthology, Science and Ontology (Shisakusha, Tokyo, 1980). This book was published in honour of Professor Masao Matsumoto, a representative Thomist in Japan, and many good articles were contributed by philosophers and a scientist. As to the studies on language and logic Hidehisa Sakai, a philosopher and logician, published a stimulating book Grammar and Logic of Japanese (Keisoshobo, Tokyo, 1979). In this book, he applied the Montague grammar to the analysis of Japanese. Other remarkable books and articles published in the last five years in the field of the philosophy of science were as follows: Logic of World View (Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu, Tokyo, 1976) by Shigeo Nagai, a philosopher, in which he proposed a phenomenalistic world view; How to Think of Data Analysis (Toyokeizai Shinposha, Tokyo, 1977) by Chikio Hayashi, a mathematician and the president of The Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, in which he presented his own ways of treating problems and his thought on science; Philosophy of Continuum in connection with Mathematics (Tokai Daigaku Shuppankai, Tokyo, 1977) by Shoitsu Sawaguchi, a philosopher of mathematics, who analysed and appreciated philosophically the position which continuum held in mathematics; Philosophy of Science (Hokuju Shuppan, Tokyo, 1979) edited by Jiichiro Takeo, a philosopher of science. He and his four colleagues discussed scientific explanations, formal structure of scientific theory, justification of scientific theory, and the relation between science and the world from a formalist point of view. One member of the contributors to the book was Sosichi Uchii, a philosopher and logician. He also published with his colleague Keiiehiro gamin, a philosopher and logician, a good book, Logic - model theory and its historical background - (Minerubashobo, Kyoto, 1976). Taneomi Uchida, a philosopher and logician, published Logic of Modalities (Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu, Tokyo, 1987) and gave a general survey of the recent development of modal logic. Arata Ishimoto, a logician, published some articles on Lesniewski's ontology, Montague grammar, modal logic and other related subjects. He is a leading figure in the field of this topics in Japan. As for mathematical logic and foundations of mathematics the leading figure is Shozi Maehara, a mathematician, who published -105-

4 48 Vol. 6 Introduction to the Foundations of Mathematics (Asakura Shoten, Tokyo, 1977). Natsuhiko Yoshida, a philosopher and logician published World of Logic and Philosophy (Shinchosha, Tokyo, 1977), and Akira Oide, a philosopher and logician published some text books of logic, played an important role in the field of philosophy of logic and logical studies during the last five years. Hiraku Yamamoto, a political scientist, published Habermas' Philosophy of Social Science (Keisoshobo, Tokyo, 1980) and gave a clear picture of the subject. There are two societies for philosophy of science in Japan. One is The Japan Association for Philosophy of Science and the other is Philosophy of Science Society, Japan. The former publishes Journal of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science (Written in Japanese) twice a year and Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science (written mainly in English) once a year. What you now are reading is the very Annals. The latter publishes Philosophy of Science (written mainly in Japanese) once a year. I would like to list some of the themes discussed in their special issues. "The Problems of Time" "Foundation and Applicability of Mathematics", "Fundamental Considerations on Decision Making", "Topics of Fuzzy Problem", "Paradigmatism", "Modal Logics and Related Topics," "Some Aspects of Contemporary Modal Logic", "Mind-body Problem and Morality", "Interpretation and Model", "Language and Non-Language". "Between Social Science and Philosophy". They would show some of the major trends of interest in the field of the philosophy of science in Japan. Many books and articles not referred to above were published. It is impossible, however, to refer to all of them in this restricted space. But a book was published which listed almost every books and articles on philosophy of science which appeared during the years It is List of Literature of Philosophy of Science (Nansosha, Tokyo, 1977) compiled by The Japan Association for Philosophy of Science. `Philosophy of Science' was here understood in a wider sense. It means every remark on ideas, methods, principles, and histories of science including logic, mathematics, humane and social sciences as well as natural ones. The List shows that in this wider sense 202 persons issued at least one article or one book on philosophy of sciences and 666 persons on methodology of sciences during the 30 years. In the last five years after the period, namely the years , studying philosophy of science was, I think, more active than in the years covered in the List. The List contains two appendices both written in English. One is "Contents of Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science", and the other is "The Development of the Philosophy of Science in Japan". The former covers the years from 1956 to But the latter covers the period from the days before the birth of the philosophy of science in Japan to It was written by Hiroshi Nagai, a philosopher of science and the editor in chief of the Journal and the Annals of The Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, Seizo -106-

5 No Ohe, a philosopher of science and the former president of the Philosophy of Science Society, Japan, and Heiji Teranaka, a Philosopher. If you connect this report to it, you can have only one article written in English about the up to date history of philosophy of science in Japan. (Hiroshi Kurosaki) -107-

Caught in the Middle. Philosophy of Science Between the Historical Turn and Formal Philosophy as Illustrated by the Program of Kuhn Sneedified

Caught in the Middle. Philosophy of Science Between the Historical Turn and Formal Philosophy as Illustrated by the Program of Kuhn Sneedified Christian Damböck Institute Vienna Circle University of Vienna