"Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science" argues that Eurocentric blindness is a scientific failing, not a moral one. In a way true of no other political system, Japan's greatness has the potential to enliven and reform almost all the main branches of Western Political Science. David Williams criticizes Western social science, Anglo-American Philosophy and French Theory and explains why mainstream economists, historians of political thought and postculturalists have ignored Japan's modern achievements. Williams demonstrates why the renewal of social science and the nurturing of a "a philosophy of the Pacific Century" requires a sustained act of intellectual demolition
Autorentext
David Williams is Senior Research Fellow in Japanese Politics at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. He is the author of Japan: Beyond the End of History (Routledge 1994).
Zusammenfassung
The central argument of Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science is that Eurocentric blindness is not a moral but a scientific failing. In this wide-ranging critique of Western social science, Anglo-American philosophy and French theory, Williams works on the premise that Japan is the most important political system of our time. He explains why social scientists have been so keen to ignore or denigrate Japan's achievements. If social science is to meet the needs of the `Pacific Century', it requires a sustained act of intellectual demolition and subsequent renewal.
Inhalt
Japanese conventions and English usage Part I Japan: the splendour of its prime 1 Japan and the European political canon 2 Where are the masters? Part II Japanese greatness and the European inheritance Science 3 Positivism 4 Empiricism 5 Orientalism Words 6 Languages 7 Criticism 8 Readers 9 Philosophies 10 Thinkers 11 Classics Part III On classic ground 12 Japan and the end of political scientific marginality: the argument restated