According to the contextualism of knowledge, the statement “I donʼt know that I have hands”is true if it is asserted on the basis of a high level of cognitive standards by skeptics. However, the statement is false if it is asserted on the basis of a low level of cognitive standards in everyday conversation. In other words, truth is relative to the context of an utterance. As a preparatory step in assessing this contextualism, this paper focuses on a discussion of Hilary Putnamʼs realism. Putnam has been discussing truth in relation to realism for many years and has shifted his own perspective from metaphysical to natural realism through internal realism. Natural realism, in particular, is important. Putnam paraphrases “natural realism” as “natural realism of the common man” or “commonsense realism.” In other words, natural realism is realism from the perspective of our everyday language, and truth is discussed in relation to this realism. In these respects, it is worthwhile to refer to Putnamʼs discussion of realism and truth before considering contextualism. Therefore, in this study, first, by tracing the development of Putnamʼs realism, I have identified the motivations for his changing realism, the perspectives implicitly assumed in this development, and what we should learn from natural realism. Second, based on Putnamʼs consideration, I discuss what can be said about truth from the aspect of everyday language.

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 The interest in Hugo Riemann’s (1849-1919) theory of harmony has been increasing in the field of music theory history. However, to understand the reception and the conceptual transformations that occurred, the history of theory must be studied across countries and languages.
 In this study, we aim to assess the music theory entries of Riemann’s Musik-Lexikon(1882–), which has been revised and translated into various languages, to examine the characteristics of its translations into English and French. Through concrete examples, we clarify the spread of music-theoretical terminology and its internationalization.
 We selected eight German editions, two English editions (new and fourth) and two French editions (1899 and 1913) during Riemann’s lifetime. From these editions, approximately 180 items were cross-checked between the original language and the translation. Each edition was carefully examined based on 35 items related to the history of music theory, such as ‘Molltonart’, and concepts peculiar to Riemann, such as ‘Funktionen’ and ‘Klang.’ We found that the English version was less affected by the development of his concepts of harmony than the reception of his art of metre, and that the French version had many items updated in line with the German 7th edition(1909) as well as translations that went one step further than the original language. The interaction between these translations, especially in the German and French editions, led to an increase in the number of entries in foreign languages and a transformation of the Lexikon into a multilingual dictionary.

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 The purpose of this paper is to identify the issues regarding the measurement of childhood writing skills in Japan. For this end, this article provides an overview of the Nationwide Achievement Assessments on Japanese language and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on Writing in US. We analyzed descriptive short answer questions in Japanese language subject of the Nationwide Achievement Assessments and revealed that the majority of the questions measured reading comprehension skills, not writing skills. The NAEP, on the other hand, has independent Writing subject to measure writing skills. The Writing subject includes many questions that require students to write their own thoughts and stories. From the perspective of the Simple View of Writing (Berninger & Swanson, 1994; Juel, Griffith & Gough, 1986) which is a popular theory on the components of writing, writing performance is multiplication of ideation and transcription skills. The NAEP captures both skills, whereas the Nationwide Achievement Assessments measure only the transcription skill. Thus, the NAEP is considered to be more appropriate assessment to measure writing skills. This paper concludes that in order to understand writing ability in childhood in Japan, it is necessary to add questions adopted by the NAEP separately from the reading comprehension measurement, and to set criteria to evaluate writing skills in the perspective of achievement levels.

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 The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that there are small or unacknowledged developments of social change which have advanced the progress in womenʼs roles, potential in society, and images in peopleʼs awareness, between the first wave feminist movement in the 1920s and second wave feminist movement in the 1960s. This can and should be labeled as part of a broader, more significant feminist movement. We also argue that the historical framework of the first wave and the second wave feminist movements might mask the actual, significant lived history that also helped lead to more prominent social improvement. We demonstrate this point with three sample cases, like the creations of Wonder Woman, the work of Frieda Hennock in FCC, and McCardellʼs clothing design, which occurred during the 1940s and the 1950s, and involved popular and consumer culture. By looking back at these examples, it is entirely reasonable to say that these were a part of the feminist movement. It might be hard to see direct connections from the characteristics of Wonder Woman, civic work of Frieda Hennock or the case of McCardell to feminist as well as minority activism. It is because these examples were not something directly related to the political movements that led to significant changes or gained human rights through other, non-political, means. Nevertheless, if these cases and their history are considered in-depth, they reveal that these were the examples of individual activisms operating in a local or specialized sphere that impacted popular and consumer culture.

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 Wittgensteinʼs Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus consists largely of two arguments: one about language and one about life. As regards interpretations of the Tractatus, two important general questions arise concerning how to relate these two arguments and how to understand the Tractatus in a unified way, both of which relate to the question of how to understand Wittgensteinʼs philosophy in a unified way. However, this paper does not attempt to answer these questions or create a unified image of Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein appears, to me, to be a singular mystery. It makes little sense to impose a unified image on a mystery. In addition, this paper does not approach Wittgenstein from the perspective of his usefulness. It is sometimes suggested that we in the 21st century should learn from Wittgenstein. However, I do not believe that contemporary society can extract any immediately useful ideas from his philosophy. At times, oneʼs view of the world can change drastically. This paper is about how my view of Wittgenstein and his philosophy changed when I experienced a change in the world as a whole. An important aspect of this change in appearance was the realization that, for Wittgenstein, philosophy was life itself and my insight into the contrast between what can and cannot be said, which is the essence of Wittgensteinʼs philosophy.

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