An Outline of a Theory of Civilization

An Outline of a Theory of Civilization
Author: Yukichi Fukuzawa
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231150733

Yukichi Fukuzawa rose from low samurai origins to become one of the finest intellectuals and social thinkers of modern Japan. Through his best-selling works, he helped transform an isolated feudal nation into a full-fledged international force. In Outline of a Theory of Civilization, the author's most sustained philosophical text, Fukuzawa translates and adapts a range of Western works for a Japanese audience, establishing the social, cultural, and political avenues through which Japan could connect with other countries. Echoing the ideas of Western contemporaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, Fukuzawa encouraged a grassroots elevation of the individual and national spirit, as well as free initiative in the private domain. Fukuzawa's bold project articulated thoughts that, for him, bolstered the material evidence of Western civilization. He argued that the essential difference separating Western countries from Japan and Asia was the extent to which citizens acted like free and responsible individuals. This careful new translation, accompanied by a comprehensive critical introduction, highlights the truly transnational aspects of Outline of a Theory of Civilization and its status as a foundational text of modern Japanese civilization. Approaching Fukuzawa's progressive thought with a fresh eye, these scholars elucidate the monumental and peerless quality of his work.

An Outline of a Theory of Civilization

An Outline of a Theory of Civilization
Author: Yukichi Fukuzawa
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2009-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231525265

Yukichi Fukuzawa rose from low samurai origins to become one of the finest intellectuals and social thinkers of modern Japan. Through his best-selling works, he helped transform an isolated feudal nation into a full-fledged international force. In Outline of a Theory of Civilization, the author's most sustained philosophical text, Fukuzawa translates and adapts a range of Western works for a Japanese audience, establishing the social, cultural, and political avenues through which Japan could connect with other countries. Echoing the ideas of Western contemporaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, Fukuzawa encouraged a grassroots elevation of the individual and national spirit, as well as free initiative in the private domain. Fukuzawa's bold project articulated thoughts that, for him, bolstered the material evidence of Western civilization. He argued that the essential difference separating Western countries from Japan and Asia was the extent to which citizens acted like free and responsible individuals. This careful new translation, accompanied by a comprehensive critical introduction, highlights the truly transnational aspects of Outline of a Theory of Civilization and its status as a foundational text of modern Japanese civilization. Approaching Fukuzawa's progressive thought with a fresh eye, these scholars elucidate the monumental and peerless quality of his work.

Insei Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian Japan 1086–1185

Insei Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian Japan 1086–1185
Author: G. Cameron Hurst
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 1976
Genre: HISTORY
ISBN: 9780231884471

Explains how and why abdicated sovereigns emerged as important political figures in the late Heian period of Japan and reevaluates the manner in which Japanese scholars have treated the abdicated sovereign in the politics of the period.

Chinese Visions of Progress, 1895 to 1949

Chinese Visions of Progress, 1895 to 1949
Author: Thomas Fröhlich
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2020-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004426523

Chinese Visions of Progress, 1895 to 1949 offers a panoramic view of reflections on progress in modern China. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the discourses on progress shape Chinese understandings of modernity and its pitfalls. As this in-depth study shows, these discourses play a pivotal role in the fields of politics, society, culture, as well as philosophy, history, and literature. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the Chinese ideas of progress, their often highly optimistic implications, but also the criticism of modernity they offered, opened the gateway for reflections on China’s past, its position in the present world, and its future course.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Author: Samuel P. Huntington
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 553
Release: 2007-05-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1416561242

The classic study of post-Cold War international relations, more relevant than ever in the post-9/11 world, with a new foreword by Zbigniew Brzezinski. Since its initial publication, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order has become a classic work of international relations and one of the most influential books ever written about foreign affairs. An insightful and powerful analysis of the forces driving global politics, it is as indispensable to our understanding of American foreign policy today as the day it was published. As former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski says in his new foreword to the book, it “has earned a place on the shelf of only about a dozen or so truly enduring works that provide the quintessential insights necessary for a broad understanding of world affairs in our time.” Samuel Huntington explains how clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace but also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war. Events since the publication of the book have proved the wisdom of that analysis. The 9/11 attacks and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated the threat of civilizations but have also shown how vital international cross-civilization cooperation is to restoring peace. As ideological distinctions among nations have been replaced by cultural differences, world politics has been reconfigured. Across the globe, new conflicts—and new cooperation—have replaced the old order of the Cold War era. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order explains how the population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise of East Asia are changing global politics. These developments challenge Western dominance, promote opposition to supposedly “universal” Western ideals, and intensify intercivilization conflict over such issues as nuclear proliferation, immigration, human rights, and democracy. The Muslim population surge has led to many small wars throughout Eurasia, and the rise of China could lead to a global war of civilizations. Huntington offers a strategy for the West to preserve its unique culture and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to coexist in a complex, multipolar, muliticivilizational world.

The Paths of Civilization

The Paths of Civilization
Author: J. Krejcí
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2004-10-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230503705

This work spans the development of civilizations from their remotest origins to the present day. It examines the term 'civilization' with reference to culture, socio-economic structure, ethnicity and statehood. Socio-economic scenarios help the reader to explore the ways in which individual civilizations - through world views, styles of life and responses to the environment that each bear their own signature - struggle, merge, submerge in the flow of the currents of history.

Meaning in Action

Meaning in Action
Author: Rein Raud
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-09-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509511288

In this important new book Rein Raud develops an original theory of culture understood as a loose and internally contradictory system of texts and practices that are shared by intermittent groups of people and used by them to make sense of their life-worlds. This theory views culture simultaneously in two ways: as a world of texts, tangible and shareable products of signifying acts, and as a space of practices, repeatable activities that produce, disseminate and interpret these clusters of meaning. Both approaches are developed into corresponding models of culture which, used together, are able to provide a rich understanding of any meaning in action. In developing this innovative theory, Raud draws on a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology, sociology and cultural studies to semiotics and philosophy. The theory is illustrated throughout with examples drawn from both 'high' and popular culture, and from Western and Asian traditions, dealing with both contemporary and historical topics. The book concludes with two case studies from very different contexts – one dealing with Italian poetry in the 13th century, the other dealing with the art scene in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. This timely and original work makes a major new contribution to the theory of culture and will be welcomed by students and scholars throughout the social sciences and humanities.

The Decline of the West

The Decline of the West
Author: Oswald Spengler
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 500
Release: 1991
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195066340

Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.

Civilization and Enlightenment

Civilization and Enlightenment
Author: Albert M. Craig
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2009-01-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674031081

The Scottish enlightenment and the stages of civilization -- American geography textbooks -- John Hill Burton's Political economy -- Invention, the engine of progress -- An outline of theories of civilization -- Reflections.