Assistant Professor TSUZAKI Yoshinori, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Why is it that everyone thinks that the liquid in the plastic bottle that is currently on this desk is "water"? Just because it is colorless and transparent does not mean it is water. But it would probably be common enough to think that if a university teacher is referring to it in a lecture hall in the middle of the day, it is unlikely that it is "alcohol." It is worth asking why it is that something everyone thinks is obvious is "obvious." Prof. Tsuzaki tells us that philosophy is there to shed light on that question.

It is the same thing when we see a book, and think "book." We are led to believe that this is a book, but we do not notice that we are being led to believe that. According to Prof. Tsuzaki, when we think about something, when we put something into words, or when we take a certain action, there is some sort of inherent fixed form present. There is a way of looking at something anonymously, without being specifically ordered by someone to see it that way, and there is a way of looking at something through the progression of time, based on what we have learned before experiencing it. It would seem that our thoughts are unconsciously forced by this two-fold principle.

Why do people think that this is a "book," or that this is "water"?

Conversely, if we are aware of that condition and we gain an insight into the framework of the thoughts we are anticipating, it gives us access to an intellectual freedom. The means by which we gain insight into the compelling power of anonymity and progression over time is "criticism." The etymology of "criticism" is from the Greek krinein, meaning "to separate." According to Prof. Tsuzaki, philosophy is the training that helps us to look critically at the present, and the training that helps us to objectivize the present and the past.

Prof. Tsuzaki, whose specialty is French philosophy, was recently engaged in the editing and translating of the French edition of a book detailing the primary sources of important thinkers in the history of Japanese philosophy from the 12th century to the 20th century. As part of this undertaking, Prof. Tsuzaki was responsible for the works of the philosopher Jun Tosaka. Tosaka was a materialist philosopher who was born in 1900, and who died in jail just before the end of World War II. Tosaka questioned and thoroughly criticized the zeitgeist and conventional wisdom of the time, which was caught up in patriotic ideology. But that is the very mission of philosophy—not to repudiate, but to criticize. Prof. Tsuzaki holds Tosaka in high esteem as a philosopher of truth in the grand tradition of Socrates, the father of philosophy. The book Prof. Tsuzaki worked on introduces the philosophers of Japan, and is receiving major accolades in France. He claims that French philosophy and Japanese traditional thought have an essential affinity. French philosophy has a characteristically subtle ethos, one which carefully describes the intimacies of daily life and the honing of sensibilities to perceive the true colors of things. Prof. Tsuzaki tells us that in the 1920s, the philosopher Shuzo Kuki went to France to study. There, he became close friends with Henri Bergson and Jean-Paul Sartre, teaching them about the aesthetics of the Edo mindset and bonding with them through the manner of its sensibilities. Upon returning home to Japan, Kuki published his seminal work, The Structure of Iki.

In-depth reading of philosophy books in their original text is an important philosophical method for vicariously experiencing the thoughts of the wise men of our past. However, the fundamental aspect of the philosophy founded by Socrates is the dialogue. It is through dialogue that we can obtain a more panoramic view of society. Dialogues must be established so that we are not isolated from society. We cannot learn "philosophy," but we can learn to philosophize. Once we learn to philosophize, it is like learning to ride a bike?it is something that stays with us for the rest of our lives. The best possible way to learn that is through dialogue. Prof. Tsuzaki, along with other teachers in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Tsukuba Graduate School who specialize in philosophy and thought, has started up a "Café Philosophique"—they call it as "Socrates Samba Cafe"—out of his desire that everyone should be given the opportunity to philosophize at least once in their lives, and if at all possible to do so while they are young.

Prof. Tsuzaki was awakened to the joys of philosophizing while in high school.

Philosophers should not be constrained by society—but neither should they be isolated from it. This kind of collaborative activity allows philosophy to be put into practice, and that practice is innately linked with cooperation in the academic realm. It is that very notion of interdisciplinary cooperation that is synonymous with the foundational ideals of the University of Tsukuba. The original meaning of the word "philosophy" is "the love of knowledge." In Japanese, the word tetsugaku is used—originally, the word came into the language via kitetsugaku, which had a meaning of "classical scholarship aspiring to wisdom." Over time, the ki- ("aspiring to / in search of") suffix was dropped, and philosophy in Japan perhaps came to be saddled with the image of being somber and disconnected from daily life. Philosophers must go out and engage with the world in order to wipe away this image.

Ultimately, Prof. Tsuzaki holds firm to the belief that the ideal form of a university is as a place where people can philosophize, and a community that fosters a love of knowledge and the pursuit of wisdom.

In 2014, Prof. Tsuzaki was presented with an excellence in teaching ("Best of Faculty") award.

Article by Science Communicator at the Office of Public Relations