Introduction: Ethics and the universal in Meiji Japan -- Civilization and foolishness : contextualizing ethics in early Meiji Japan -- The epistemology of Rinrigaku -- Rinrigaku and religion : the formation and fluidity of moral subjectivity -- Resisting civilizational hierarchies : the ethics of spirit and the spirit of the people -- Approaching the moral ideal : national morality, the state, and "dangerous thought" -- Epilogue: The ethics of humanism and moral particularism in twentieth-century Japan.
0
Presents a study of ethics in Meiji Japan (1868-1912) that explores the struggle to define a common morality for the emerging nation-state. This book considers the fluidity of moral subjectivity by juxtaposing rinrigaku texts with moral writings by religious apologists.