Abstract
This article examines the status of "sensation" in the late nineteenth-century Japanese instructional theory. Through a historical comparison of the two types of instructional theories in pedagogy, this article explains how the changes in the status of "sensation," derived from experimental psychology, reorganized the relationship between the two basic concepts of mind and body and led to the logic of control through "sensation".
In the 1880s, "object lessons" theorized "perception" as a medium between the mind and the knowledge acquired from external aspects. This instructional theory proposed that with regard to perception, the eyes are particularly important for the acquisition of precise knowledge. Therefore, it is essential to discipline the eyes, which mediate the mind and knowledge, and to acquire the ability of attention in order to gain precise knowledge.
On the other hand, in the 1890s, it was argued in "psychological instructions" that "sensation" is aroused by the stimulation of the sensory organs. Further, this uncertain "sensation" caused by accidental stimulation forms one.s ideas. Moreover, this theory postulates that the mind is a fluid wherein multifarious ideas created by sensations continually conflict. Accordingly, the incorporation of psychological knowledge in pedagogy in the late nineteenth century resulted in the understanding that (1) the subject becomes a passive existence affected by accidental "sensation" and (2) the subject is defined as an existence that constructs his/her own ideas by active "attention." Further, on the other hand, (3) the psychological instructions determine in advance the set of ideas that the students should aim to gain, and the attention of the subject is thus invalidated. Consequently, (4) this theory can become the logic of control through "sensation." Thus, with the change in the status of "sensation," the aim of using projection devices in the 1890s was to shift focus from the training of perception to the controlling and measuring of sensation.
