Professor

Takao Ito

Profile

Faculty of Letters Department of Human Studies

Graduate School of Graduate School of Letters Humanities Major

Ikeda Research Institute for Soka Education

Specialized Field	Philosophy/ethics, history of thought
Research theme	Modern German Thought, Social Contract Theory, and Spiritual and Cultural History
Subjects in charge	Introduction to anthropology and ethics
Seminar Theme	Read the Great Books (classics of humanity): Plato's "The Republic"; Descartes' "Discourse on the Method"; Kant's "Grounds of the Metaphysics of Morals"; Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation"; Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" etc.
Main career, work history, and academic background	Kumamoto City Kansai Soka High School Soka University, Faculty Faculty of Letters, Department of Humanities Soka University Graduate Graduate School of Letters Humanities Major Visiting Researcher at the Schopenhauer Institute, University of Mainz
Affiliated academic societies and organizations	Japan Philosophical Association, Existential Thought Association, Japan Intellectual History Association, Japan Schopenhauer Society, Japan Leibniz Society, Japan Kant Society, Japan Fichte Society, Japan Hegel Society, Japan Dewey Society, Japan Pestalozzi-Froebel Society, Japan Hermann Hesse Friendship Society, etc.
Main Papers and Publications	"Schopenhauer: The Philosophy of Conspiracy Refusal - War, Law, and the State" (Koyoshobo, 2014) "Toward a Revival of the Humanities: An Invitation to Human Studies" (co-editor, Keiso Shobo, 2018) "The Complete Works of Hermann Hesse 4: Under the Wheel, Stories" (co-translated, Rinkawa Shoten, 2005) "The Complete Works of Hermann Hesse 8: Criticism of the Times" (co-translated, Rinkawa Shoten, 2010) Goethe-Schiller Letters (vol. 1 and 2) (co-translated, Ushio Publishing, 2016) etc.
others	E-mail: itotakao@soka.ac.jp Hobbies: Reading, listening to classical music, visiting art museums

Specialized Field	philosophy Intellectual History
Research theme	The history of the influence of Kant's philosophy: 1) Metaphysics (Schopenhauer, etc.), 2) Ethics (Fichte, etc.), 3) Aesthetics (Schiller, etc.), 4) Anthropology (Pestalozzi, etc.)
research content	In his graduation thesis, he dealt with Kant, and in his master's and doctoral thesis he dealt with Schopenhauer, one of Kant's critical successors. The fundamental theme was the theory of freedom, and in his doctoral thesis he attempted to reinterpret modern German philosophy, focusing on social historical issues such as law, the state, power, and war. Major works "Schopenhauer's Philosophy of Refusal to Conscription: War, Law, and the State" (Koyoshobo, 2014) "Toward a Revival of the Humanities: An Invitation to Human Studies" (co-editor, Keiso Shobo, 2018) Selected Papers "Fichte's Reception of Pestalozzi" (Proceedings of the Japan Pestalozzi-Froebel Society - Explorations of Human Education - No. 22, 2010) "Is the denial of will the denial of morality?" (Riso No. 687, Risosha, 2011) "The Origin of Kant's Theory of World Citizenship" (Contemporary Kant Studies, Vol. 12, 2012) "Hegel and Schopenhauer" (Hegel Philosophical Studies, No. 18, 2012) "The Reception of Schopenhauer's Philosophy and its Era" (Existential Thought Collection, Vol. 33, 2018) Main translation "The Complete Works of Hermann Hesse 4: Under the Wheel, Stories" (co-translated, Rinkawa Shoten, 2005) "Hermann Hesse: Essay Collection 8: Criticism of the Times" (co-translated, Rinkawa Shoten, 2010) Goethe-Schiller Letters (vol. 1 and 2) (co-translated, Ushio Publishing, 2016)
Research and Education Policy	I would like to conduct research into the social history of German humanism, taking into account Kant's critical successors, like Schopenhauer, such as Fichte, Schiller, and Herbart, and to explore the history of the reception of Kant's social philosophy, including among modern Japanese thinkers such as Uchimura Kanzō, Tomonaga Sanjūrō, and Minobe Tatsukichi. Our educational policy, when reading philosophical texts in their original form, is to encourage careful reading, as if reading the weight of "history" and "society" behind each and every word and listening to the author's breathing.
Message	I want you to value your own awareness of problems and intellectual interests in your research. As the etymology of philosophy suggests, it is an activity of "love of knowledge," so I want you to remember the joy of thoroughly exploring the things you want to know.
others	We would like students to not only read books but also to actively discuss them both in and out of class. In addition, since we place importance on reading original texts in class, we would like students to study not only English but also modern Western languages such as German and French.

Research theme	A study of the ideological history of Soka education

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