International Research Project on Self

Project Gist

Constructing a New View on Self and Exploring Its Implications for Ethics, Society and Environments.

Keywords

East Asian True Self, Holistic Self, Enactivism, Bio- and Medical-Ethics

Background and Purpose

Being inspired by East Asian traditional view on true self, this project aims to propose a new holistic, enactive and heterogeneous concept of self, self-as-we, and to explore its ethical, social and environmental consequences, focusing on bio- and medical ethics. It also purports to compare self-as-we with other views on self in contemporary philosophy and related areas, creating pluralistic worldview for the 21st century.

Project Achievements

Through a joint research between Kyoto University and University of California San Diego researchers, this project has conducted thorough dialogues between an Asian view of self and its Western counterparts, and laid a foundation for future corroborations between the two institutions in many fields of humanities, including bio- and medical ethics. It also trigged corroborations between Kyoto University’s humanities and IT industries in Japan.

Future Prospects

We purport to provide a model case for social issue oriented humanities through corroborations with industries that was initiated by our SPIRITS project. We also pursuit to publish our research products as a monograph and an edited volume in English.

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Joint Research/Academic Institutions Abroad

University of California San Diego, University of Massachusetts Boston, Smith College, California State University

Principal Investigator