After World War I, in the modern Japanese society of the 1920s, the term "society" was used in various forms, a phenomenon that is now often called the "discovery of society." As a result of this trend, greater interest was shown in the scholarly field of social science than ever before. The field of natural sciences, on the other hand, continued to claim undisputed preeminence. Thus, with regard to the field of the humanities, which is neither classified as social science nor as natural science, one may ask as to what was regarded as knowledge to an intellectual at that time. This article aims to answer this question.
Accordingly, in Chapter 1, scholarly theories of the 1910s that argued for the classification standards for the natural sciences and humanities are considered.
Chapter 2 clarifies why the purpose of humanities was supposed to differ from that of natural sciences. Thereafter, it observes that the focus for discussion moved from the examination of classification standards in scholarly fields to the reflection on the classification system in the 1920s.
In Chapter 3, the link between social science and humanities is discussed with particular emphasis on the purpose and policies in the humanities.
Finally, in Chapter 4, "proletarian science," which emerged as a consequence of the theoretical trends of the humanities theory in Japan in the 1920s, is discussed in relation to the subject of this article.
View full abstract