It is well known that the English word “philosophy” was translated into Japanese as
tetsugakuby Amane Nishi.
The writer makes clear the circumstances under which Nishi coined the term
tetsugaku.
However, before Nishi coined it, the word
rigakuwas the term most com-monly used to mean “philosophy.”
In 1791-92, in a translation of a Dutch book on astronomy, YoshinagaMotoki translated “philosophy” into various terms, such as 儒教・智学・窮理学・性理学・性理術. This was the first recorded translation of “philosophy” into these terms. And after twenty years, in a few Dutch-Japanese or English-Japanese dictionaries compiled around 1810, we can find the word
rigaku (理学).A case can be made that Yoshinaga Motoki and Dutch interpreters played an important role in the translation of the word “philosophy” into Japanese. But why did
tetsugahucome to replace
rigakuas the commonly accepted translation when
rigakuhad been used for so many years.
After presenting a report at the regular monthly meeting in April, 1993, the writer tried to throw new light on this question, as well as on the issues of why opinions are divided on the books in which the term
tetsugakuappeared, and why “philosophy” was not translated into its exact Japanese equivalent
aichigaku (愛智学).
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