The Conception of “the Subject” in Masaaki Kosaka’s Educational Thought

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to point out the significance of the conception of “the subject” in Masaaki Kosaka’s thought on education, and to highlight the necessity to reconsider his educational philosophy through this conception. In order to understand his thought on education, it is indispensable to examine his speculations on the philosophy of history. In educational research, however, most studies on Kosaka have failed to appreciate the importance of his historical philosophy, totally ignoring his conception of the independent individual. Kosaka’s Rekishiteki sekai (The historical world) (1937) is his fi rst production and is strongly infl uenced by his two great mentors, Kitaro Nishida and Hajime Tanabe, the founders of the so-called Kyoto School of philosophy. As a philosopher in the Kyoto School, Kosaka explores the way in which humankind can live as the practical agent in the historical world. It is the idea of “species” that is most notable in Kosaka’s Rekishiteki sekai. This idea is derived from Tanabe’s philosophy on “the logic of species.” Tanabe bases on this logic his own unique form of dialectic process. According to Kosaka, individuals can exist in the world only through the mediation of “species.” He argues that humankind is a fi nite being and that we are inherently shaped by the history and the past of the “species,” that is to say, the ethnos. However, he also says that humankind has the innate freedom to shape its own future. Individuals are thus simultaneously dependent and independent in the historical world, reflecting a dialectical relationship in “the subject.” Kosaka develops the conception of the historical individual and “species” not only in his historical philosophy, but also in his educational philosophy.