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

本研究着眼于19世纪末洋务运动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达尔文主义观念在日本知识界的引入产生了复杂的影响。在这个项目中，我分析了东亚的传统伦理思想在遇到“适者生存”、“自由竞争”或“进化”等具有挑战性的理念时是如何被修改的。特别是，有三个主题很重要。一是正义观念的延续和变化。二是政治主体形象是如何构成的。三是明治政府初期达尔文学派对精英形成思想的影响，主要考察西方国家的斯宾塞、密尔、哈里森、J·K·布伦舒利、路德维希·甘普洛维兹，东亚国家的福泽由纪夫、羽内西志、中海卓敏、大森昭一、梁琦、郁吉春等人。

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.