Booked for Japan

May 25, Sat. 1:10 - 1:54 (UTC) etc.

Takeshi Umehara: Nature, Harmony, and 21st Century Philosophy

Takeshi Umehara is the founder of Umehara Nihongaku, a unique and controversial academic school of thought. Even now, at the age of 88, this philosopher continues to play an active role in the public eye. At the Reconstruction Design Council in Response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, he fiercely argued that, "This disaster is a 'disaster of civilization.' Our civilization, a civilization that allows the use of nuclear power to enrich and improve the lives of its citizens, has met with disaster. Now we must judge the choices our civilization has made."
Umehara is harshly critical of the anthropocentrism of Western civilization and philosophy. He is promoting a new kind of philosophy for the 21st century, one based on the ideals of harmony with nature found in Buddhism as well as in ancient Japanese Jomon culture. Umehara is also taking on new challenges, including the writing of a Noh play in modern Japanese about Noh playwright Zeami Motokiyo. Robert Campbell interviews this great Japanese thinker about the future of Japan and the nature of humankind.

His favorite book: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche