Influence of Social Darwinism on the View of International Relations in Modern Japan

本研究项目主要研究十九世纪末洋务初期欧洲社会达尔文主义思想对日本政治话语的影响。欧洲社会达尔文主义理论的多样性对日本知识界引入达尔文主义概念产生了复杂的影响。在这个项目中，我分析了东亚传统伦理思想在遇到“适者生存”、“自由竞争”或“进化”等具有挑战性的思想时是如何被修改的。特别是，三个主题是重要的。首先是正义观念的延续与变迁。二是政治主体形象的构成。三是明治政府初期达尔文主义对精英形成观念的影响。本项目主要考察的理论家有西方世界的Herbert Spencer、John Stuart Mill、Frederick Harrison、j.k.b ultschuli、Ludwig Gumplowiz，以及东亚国家的fuzawa Yukichi、Nishi Amane、Nakae Chomin、Ohomori Shoichi、梁其超和余吉春。

This research project focus on the influence of European social Darwinism thought on Japanese political discourse in the early stage of westernization in the late nineteenth century.The diversity of social Darwinism theory in Europe made complicated effects on the introduction of Darwinian concepts in Japanese intellectual sphere. In this project, I analyzed how the traditional ethical thought in East Asia was modified when it met the challenging idea of ‘survival of the fittest', ‘free competition', or ‘evolution'. Especially, three topics are important. The first is the continuity and change of the idea of justice. The second one is how the image of political body constituted. The third one is the Darwinian influence on the idea of elite formation in the starting period of Meiji government.Theorists mainly examined in this project are Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, Frederick Harrison, J.K.Bluntschuli, Ludwig Gumplowiz in the western world and Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nishi Amane, Nakae Chomin, Ohomori Shoichi, Liang Qi-chao and Yu Kil-chun in East Asian coutries.