Abstract
During the Meiji period there were three types of ethics in Japan: utilitarian evolutionary theory, the theory of nationalistic self-realization, and the theory of idealistic self-realization. In this article I will elucidate the characteristics and transitions of the theory of idealistic self-realization.
Advocates of the theory of idealistic self-realization were Hajime Onishi and Ryosen Tsunajima, and we can see the origin of this theory in the idealistic moral philosophy developed by Thomas Hill Green in England. Green’s ultimate aim was to harmonize the conflict between modern life and Christian doctrine, so he argued that the end of our action lies in the realization of our ideal self in our actual self. Through this process of self-realization, our personality and society are morally trained to be just. In the end, we can say that Green aimed to explain and to logically reconstruct the Christian idea of Divine Providence.
Basing Green’s thought, Onishi maintained that our conscience was an expression of the evolutionary movement of the universe, and therefore a good deed meant one which participated in this movement. Onishi did not go so far as to insist that the only end of our action was self-realization, but Ryosen did. I argue that the theory of idealistic self-realization requires both doctrines to be sufficient as a theory.
