Message from The Chairperson
Philosophy is the study of the proposal of values. To whom? Of course, people and society above all else. To deliver a voice to people, philosophy must once again face society and engage it.
On the other hand, the world of the 21st century desperately needs a more pluralistic and multilayered approach to values. The Kyoto Institute of Philosophy is established as a “place” where these two trajectories meet, a “place” that links philosophy and society, creates new views of humans and the world through dialogue between the two, and disseminates them from Kyoto to today’s global world.
It is our mission and dream that the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy can be a “place” where people and researchers from around the world gather to discuss and exchange their ideas, and to create new social values and philosophical trends originating from this culturally iconic city.
Yasuo DEGUCHI
Vice Provost,
Deputy Executive Vice-President for Strategic Coordination,
Vice Dean and Professor of Philosophy of Graduate School of Letters,
Vice Director of Institute for the Future of Human Society,
Kyoto University
His research areas include modern and contemporary Western philosophy and Analytic Asian Philosophy. More specifically, he has studied the following topics: philosophy of Kant, philosophy of probability theory and statistics, scientific realism, Chinese Buddhism, Dogen, and the Kyoto School of philosophy. In recent years, he has been advocating “Self-as-We” or “We-turn”, a vision of humans and society based on what he calls “fundamental incapabilities.” He has also been engaged in collaborative research with NTT and Hitachi Kyoto U. Lab and other industrial sectors. Originally from Osaka Prefecture. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University. PhD (Humanities).
Celebrating the Establishment of the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy
In the summer of 2019, I visited Professor Deguchi of Kyoto University to discuss the new information and communication infrastructure (IOWN). His suggestion provided a clear insight: “A new social infrastructure needs a new philosophy”.
In December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic quickly spread across the whole world. The movement of people and goods came to a halt and globalization was transformed, allowing for the narrative of putting one’s country first to gain traction.
March 2022, Russia started its invasion of Ukraine; the world was abruptly jolted into a reality where security became the absolute priority. Amid the US-China dilemma, the rise of the Global South has brought about a trilemma structure. However, considering how the world is currently structured in terms of the divisions of East-West and North-South – just as it was in the Cold War era – its constructive resolution calls for the tetralemma, a fourth principle fostering mutual recognition of various values.
Now, more than ever, we need a new philosophy in which Western and Eastern values can coexist. It is our aspiration to propose new global values from Kyoto, and foster hope for the future.
Establishing the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy is the first step in this endeavor.
Jun SAWADA
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Chairman and Representative Member of the Board
Chairman and Representative Member of the Board, and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. During his presidency, he pursued drastic reforms, including the announcement of the next-generation information and communication infrastructure concept “IOWN”, the reorganization of NTT group, and the promotion of partnerships both domestically and internationally. He is also known for his deep appreciation of philosophy. In his book “Paraconsistent World”, he proposes a vision of a future from a perspective of philosophy, life sciences, and information sciences. He also serves as the Chairman of the Health and Longevity Industry Federation, the Chairman of the Japan – U.S. Business Council, and a Vice Chair of the Japan Business Federation. Born in Osaka Prefecture and graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering, Kyoto University.
Objectives
Propose global values that can serve as long-term guidelines for sustainable deployment of technology in a society of diverse values.
- Study and find new approaches that reconcile the values of Western, Japan and East Asian ideas
- Mobilize disciplines such as philosophy, history and the arts to address the problems of contemporary society
- Propose ways to implement philosophical foundations to enrich the lives of citizens in diverse societies
- Develop activities around Kyoto, a city with great history that will be internationally appealing
Activities
（1） Research Project: Build a discourse space for the articulation of global values.
- Conduct philosophical research projects with philosophers from around the world.
- Create a discourse space consisting of academic books, scholarly articles, general introductory books, and media content.
（2） Implementation through cross-sector collaboration and social transmission.
- Conduct dialogue, joint research, and joint projects between humanities researchers and industry, government, academia, and the private sector.
- Production of multimedia content to disseminate results.
（3） Hold Kyoto Conference
- The conference will be held on a regular basis to bring together the world’s leading experts to discuss global economic and environmental issues and develop new global values and standards.
Research Collaborators
Jay Garfield
Doris Silbert Professor, Smith College
Visiting Professor, Harvard Divinity School
Professor, University of Melbourne
Adjunct Professor, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. He is the author or editor of over 30 books and over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews.Garfield’s most recent books are Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self (2022), Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds 2021, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021).
Graham Priest
Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne
International Research Fellow at the Ruhr University of Bochum
Graham Priest is known for his work on non-classical logic, particularly in connection with dialetheism, on metaphysics, on the history of philosophy, and on Buddhist philosophy. He has published over 300 papers in nearly every major logic and philosophy journal. His books include: Beyond the Limits of Thought (1985), In Contradiction (1987), Introduction to Non-Classical Logic (2001), Towards Non-Being (2005), One (2014), The Fifth Corner of Four and Capitalism—its Nature and its Replacement (2021).
Association Structure
Kyoto Institute of Philosophy
Members at the time of Establishment
- NTT Corporation
- Yasuo Deguchi, Vice Provost, Vice Dean and Professor of Philosophy at Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
Director
- Yasuo Deguchi, Vice Provost, Vice Dean and Professor of Philosophy at Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
Executive Advisor／Chief Strategist
- Masaki Nomura (Office of Society Academia Collaboration for Innovation, Kyoto University: Collaborative Research Fellow; Harvard Kennedy School)
Profile
Kyoto, Japan
contact@k-philo.org
https://k-philo.org/
