1. Two kinds of truth in reality

By SHIN-ICHI TERASHIMA

I learned English as a foreign language in high school. This study mainly consisted of translating English into Japanese, and to a much lesser extent, the reverse. "All men are created equal" was difficult for me to grasp, and later I was to learn that many such sayings are written similarly.  This has led me to ask why Western philosophy is not popular in our country?  I believe that the primary reason is because it deals with metaphysical (non

real) matter, for which the Japanese have a grammatical handicap in composing sentences. It seems to be easy for Westerners to differentiate between a metaphysical world and a physical world when the latter in the present tense is converted into another tense. Then, a discussion can be about another world in parallel with the present world. These two worlds are mirror images, so comparison between them is inevitably introduced as a philosophical consideration in one's mind. Without this correspondence, an imagined theory tends to be completely separated from reality, and it becomes as an end in itself.

  English is an especially powerful language for creativity outside of reality. People believe English translation means the process of bringing knowledge from foreign countries to our country by means of Japanese interpretation.  Unfortunately, due to the Japanese thought process, the final interpretation may not be the original concept. Therefore, the precise idea as originally conceived is lost. When we see things in reality they are in a floating world (ukiyo). When we imagine things, they do not change by themselves unless we change them in our own minds. The Japanese see that they are unrealistic, or devoid of a sense of reality (jikkan ga nai), which means useless in real world. However, imagination might be useful for the Japanese by encouraging their creativity.

In order to construct our own imaginary world, non-present (past or future) tenses would be useful. The Japanese carefully convert things of the past and future into things of reality through sentence composition.

Conversion of  "will" into "guess" (sasshi) is as regular a process as traditional mind reading. Japanese auxiliary verbs modify the main verb's meaning with vagueness when things are not in the here and now. For this purpose there are various auxiliary verbs available, which include those for report (denbun), recollection (kaiso), guess (suiryo), hope (kibo), prediction (yoso), and many others. If things become real, then the Japanese can put them into their consciousness as truth.  In English, "things-as-they-are" are put in sentences of the present tense, while "things-as-they-should-be" are put in the future or past tense. In Japanese, both truths ("things-as-they-are" and "things-as-they-should-be") are composed in sentences of real (or present) tense. This procedure makes for confusion between metaphysical and physical concepts.  The Western way of stating two different levels of tense seems to be very helpful in order to develop logical discussion.

  Westerners have two undeniable kinds of truth: self-evident (or imaginary), and observed. The former is metaphysical and the latter is　physical. In contrast, there are conflicting truths (consensus and natural tendency) at the same level in the Japanese mind. In order to avoid confusion (of these statements) an explanation has been invented: Things of this world are divided into two categories which enables speakers to differentiate one truth from the other: ninjo (natural human feeling and self-interest) from giri (hierarchical considerations), honne (true sentiments) from tatemae (expressed sentiments), ura (inside) from omote (surface), double-entry bookkeeping, and so on.  Two kinds of truth (consensus and natural tendency) interrupt the logical sequence by jumping from one side to the other. Logical sequences learned in school are used only for topical application, instead of universal matters because the choice of which is at the speaker's discretion. So, people enjoy it as if it were a comedian's joke. The Japanese are passively waiting for a chance to make an opportunistic choice from the two kinds of truth.

  Historically, in the Edo era, in this real world, there were two ways of control.  The Samurai class controlled the surface of this society, while the merchant class (chonin) controlled the inside by means of their economical power. Each could not do both at once. Similarly after World War II, Japan jumped from this surface control to inside control: from military (pro-war) power to economic (peaceful) power. This jump was a salvation, a rebirth, for the Japanese who were driven into a corner. An American anthropologist, Ruth Benedict, was surprised by this jump by Japanese solders in World War II. Some captured Japanese soldiers jumped from giri (military rules) to ninjo (natural tendency), tatemae to honne, etc.

  Without an ethical standard, the Japanese are afraid of the following situation: A says that B's stealing is no good, while B says that A's being stolen from is bad. So, the Japanese have to refrain from such statements or judgments. "Kawatte-iru" literally means "changed", and "kawatte-iru hito" means a strange fellow. If a man holds a different opinion (varying from the consensus), the man is a strange fellow. So, even in the midst of  urgent

reform of the education system, the leader cannot be a unique or single-minded person. School cannot be changed because school cannot be strange. The Japanese feel safe when an ordinary man is sitting in an ordinary school. In the feudal era, social hierarchy was believed without doubt and so observed. Superiors could decide everything. It did not matter if it was logical or not, and hence they could keep their dignity. Today, social hierarchy has been abolished and neglected. Leaders cannot decide anything. Logical or not, it does not matter as before, leaders cannot issue orders, but have to seek consensus and agreement through persuasion and other less direct means.

  People believe that this domination of objective judgment (yononaka or consensus) in this country proves that the Japanese are truly democratic and scientific. Although science must be developed by human creativity, the Japanese begin to take an idea into consideration only after things come into reality. So, the Japanese are almost always delayed in starting

internationally and are conservative in approaching new ideas. Only men of limited ability in this country can attain a certain level of responsibility in the scientific world. This is a serious situation for a superpower. The Japanese should become familiar with English, and should become logical and acquire the ability to communicate with foreigners in an international language.

1065 words (unpublished)

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