5　「境界を越える」思想　震災後の知と平和学の役割

抄録

“Territorial” thought divides the world into “us” versus “them,” often leading people to retreat from complex society and withdraw into closed territory that is protected from uncertainty. This phenomenon is found not only in rising antiimmigrant sentiment but also in our knowledge that tends to employ solid models to the unstable world by eliminating the unknown. The Fukushima nuclear disaster, for example, revealed the limitation of such knowledge. A scientific approach cannot provide full certainty regarding operating nuclear plants or investigating the health risks of radiation. The moral law is also inapplicable when a complexity of society distracts us from feeling responsible to others. This urges the need for another type of thought which reflects uncertainty.

While the “territorial” nature of conventional science and moral philosophy discounts the complexity and vulnerability of life, this paper introduces a strand of contemporary philosophy called post-humanism and new materialism. It is radically “non-territorial” thought that deconstructs the notion of a rational subject with a clear identity and intention. Although such entities are often regarded as disempowered, the paper claims that they possess ethico-political agency. The case in point is political practices in the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movement. In this instance, the protesters took to the street based on emotional turmoil, such as shock, anger, and regret. Those emotional experiences were initially personal, but the activism provided a space for each participant to feel the pain of others, share a passion and create something new together. Through encountering others on the street, they formed a heterogeneous “assemblage” and engage in politics without consistent ideology.

The paper questions a dishonest habit of scholars who stand outside of the phenomenon they observe and reduce changing reality to an invariable model, thereby downplaying the precarity of our lives. As peace studies researchers, we need to put ourselves in the middle of uncertainty, experiment with affirming the dignity of proximate bodies, and weave knowledge together from within.