Conflict between the West and the East
This book contains three talks held in Kyoto in September 1978, lectures by Hayek and Imanishi, and talks between Hayek and Takeo Kuwabara. . Hayek is 79 and Imanishi is 76.
They continue to search for common ground, but I feel like they end up passing each other. Mr. Imanishi seems to be getting a little irritated halfway through (“Irachi”) (laughs).
The interview seems to have been requested by Hayek, but it was set up by Japan and the witnesses were people close to Imanishi, so I feel that the editing was biased toward Imanishi.
I'm a fan of Imanishi (?), so I can understand every single thing he says. In contrast, what Hayek, a central economist of neoliberalism said, caught my eye.
Imanishi was from a bourgeois family, and Hayek was from a noble family. It doesn't match my thoughts, but I think it has an impact.
More than that, I feel that the nature and history of Kyoto, where Imanishi was born and raised, and the streets and history of Vienna, where Hayek was born and raised, have had a strong influence. I feel that the history and culture of Europe flowed through Hayek, and the history and culture of Japan flowed into Imanishi.
Hayek's Thoughts
I think Hayek is trying to get closer to Imanishi in his dialogue. However, he did not give up even one step in the core part of his thought.
I think that Hayek's thoughts are clearer in the appendix than in the dialogue.
But the fact is that civilization has largely been made possible by subjecting innate animal instincts to irrational conventions, and these conventions have gradually become Increasing the scale has made it possible to form larger and more disciplined groups. (P.109)
This is the way one of the main functions of later learned norms is needed to make innate or natural instincts capable of making great societies possible. Because it was to suppress. We still tend to assume that natural things must be good. But in great societies the natural may be far from good. Tradition, not nature or reason, has made man better. There is not much common humanity in the biology of species. But the majority of groups had to acquire certain similarities in order to form a larger society. Alternatively, it is possible that those who did not acquire were exterminated by those who acquired. (P.117)
It means that humans needed "discipline" to create "larger groups". It is "neither nature nor reason, but tradition."
If norms (rules) encourage commercial activity, they can hurt our feelings. Our innate feeling is always socialist, not capitalist. For example, there is an objection to selling food to foreign countries as a commodity instead of sharing it with the poor in the neighborhood. (P.22)
By ``suppressing with discipline'' that ``innate feeling (instinct),'' commerce and the ``great society'' Society)”, P.116)” has become possible. It is said that those who did not acquire that "discipline" were exterminated by those who acquired it. What Hayek has in mind is probably that Homo sapiens survived and the rest of the Homo genus died out, or that Africa, South America, and Asia were ruled by Europe. Europe was able to rule because it had "discipline". How arrogant! I think it's Eurocentric and white supremacist.
Uneducated savages who claim to have no attachment to what they have not mastered, and who even attempt to construct "countercultural" It is the inevitable result of permissive education that trusts the innate instincts of savages that have been misrepresented. (P.140)
Maybe you think that 'barbarians don't have culture' or that 'barbarians' culture is not culture'.
That "social discipline (norms/rules)"
Rules are taught, not understood. And it is constantly being repulsed. (P.20-21)
The very place where discipline is instilled is "school", but Hayek does not mention it. There is no doubt that modern schools have that role (even if schools themselves have such a character), but it has become more prominent in modern schools (rather than study and learning). , different in character from previous schools. Whether it's commerce, the state of society, or evolution, I feel that Hayek is looking from the modern era to the earlier era.
We often don't like evolution because new possibilities always bring new rules as well. (P.130)
But unfortunately progress cannot be slowed down. (Economic growth is similar in this regard.) All we can do is create favorable conditions for it and hope for the best. (P.131)
In a culture shaped by group selection, the burden of egalitarianism prevents further evolution It must be. (P.136)
Those who demand a share without being subject to the discipline to which society's wealth owes, the propaganda of unlimited democracy aided by scientist psychology It is because of the slogan "It's not your fault" (P.136)
Even though all cultures or morals may be equally good for the science of anthropology, we regard others as not so good. and maintain society. (P.137)
So freedom comes first at the expense of equality.
Humans (as well as non-human animals) are selfish and selfish. So (survival) competition is inevitable. A society that "suppresses innate instincts (innate emotions, innate emotions = socialism) with discipline" competes under commercial (capitalist) "rules". It goes beyond good and evil. There is no “concrete goal” (P.123). It is nothing more than "blind (irrational) group selection", but "obedience to the same abstract norm" (ibid.), that is, "capitalist discipline (rule, spontaneous order P.133)" A society that maintains cohesion with others” (ibid.) was able to create an “open society.”
An "open society" would "meet the needs of the unknown, Also, people do things that help their neighbors unconsciously and unconsciously” (p.91), a society of free competition. It's a cliché in economics that follows Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand".
“Sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es. , S.88, Japanese translation Otsuki Shoten version P.100.
Capitalist society is thought to be a conscious, rational society, but both Marx and Hayek realized that it is actually based on the opposite principle. is there.
By competition (blind and irrational selection), that is, by individual selfish and free choice, the ``fittest'' is ``selected'' and ``survives'' ``as a result''. ("winners" and "losers"), the "weak" will be "selected". That is "social evolution".
But unfortunately progress cannot be slowed down. (Economic growth is similar in this regard.) All we can do is create favorable conditions for it and hope for the best. (P.131)
Man is not the master of his destiny and never will be . Man's very reason, man always progresses, leading him into unknown and unpredictable worlds where he learns new things. . (P.143)
At first glance, it may sound like a statement that transcends “humanism,” but even so, what is there is nothing more than “humanism.” Reason. But that reason is not there to know how society will change, what will happen to humans, what will happen to the environment. It is "socialist" and "Floydian" to think about it or to know it.
On the contrary, all socialism is the result of the revival of ancient instincts. But the majority of socialist theorists are so sensible that they know that in great societies the resurrection of the codes of conduct which have governed savages cannot satisfy those old instincts. . So these hardened criminals join the opposing camp and seek to construct a new morality that satisfies their instinctive cravings. (P.132)
As long as socialism advocated by Marxists and environmental protection advocated by ecologists are based on ``reason'' )” will be created. It's a codified rule. That rule is presented in advance as a goal. By comparison, the rules of capitalism are made after the fact. Hayek's "rules" are more "irrational" and "barbaric" than he thinks (that's why they have a lot of power).
Imanishi's thought
Imanishi's thought is Western thought in Japan. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan also absorbed the same European thought as Hayek. So in Tokyo, the center of Japan, Hayek's way of thinking is pervasive. In Osaka, west of Japan, commerce was developed before the Meiji Restoration, so a different idea of a mixture of European and Japanese commerce is flowing. And in Kyoto, I feel that the old culture of Japan remains in a position that dominates merchants and in a form that is separate from commerce.
Forests appear to us as a collection of plants. This gives rise to the idea of a plant society, and as I said earlier, this is an extension of the Western view of a group-equal society. Therefore, even though we can see the forest as a plant society, we do not consider the individual species that make up the forest as a society at all. (P.25)
However, in Europe there is a strong tendency to respect individuals rather than species or groups. We are always questioning whether it is the individual or the society. (P.155)
The modern Western way of thinking is Descartes' "I think, therefore I am." First of all, there is the individual (individual) called ``I''. Society is a collection of individuals, but ``I'' is an ``existence'' that is absolutely incompatible with the whole (society). That "gathering of individuals (groups)" is Western society. Unlike the Japanese, Westerners do not "bury the individual in the group." It's not that I won't, it's that I can't.
In the Darwinian theory of evolution, there are "mutated individuals" first, and evolution is explained by "competition for survival", "natural selection", "survival of the fittest", and "eating the fittest". And those who survived are explained ``ex post facto'' by ``utility theory'' and ``causal relationship'' that ``was advantageous to survival''.
At any rate, it is a paradox of logic to say that all survivors are fittest, even though there is no evidence that the fittest survived. (P.50)
Then how did it come to walk upright on two legs? This is the case with Darwin, and before Darwin there was a great French biologist named Lamarck. For example, some individuals survived because they had favorable conditions. (P.163)
Utility theory is one of them, but in all of today's science, there is a strong tendency to try to explain things through the connection between cause and effect. (P.164)
Imanishi claims that they are strange. As for the details, I would like you to read Imanishi's work. It's like a Zen question, but it means that it doesn't depend on "advantageous survival (utility theory)" or "cause and effect (law of cause and effect)." I think this is a way of thinking born from the nature of Kyoto that nurtured Imanishi and his research methods.
I am a person who spends my whole life doing field research, but I have been in contact with nature for 60 years and have been struggling with life or death between individuals. , I can't say that it never happens, but at least it's not the norm in nature. (P.161)
That's why it's the principle that species don't fight with each other. (ibid.)
Contrary to Darwin's principle of competition, my theory of evolution is based on the principle of coexistence. There is a fundamental difference. (Same as above)
I feel there is a gentle look at "life" including humans and "nature". I think that Imanishi, as a mountaineer, also realizes the greatness and terror of nature. That is why he feels compassionate eyes for those who "live" in nature, the nature that nurtures and destroys life.
Still, I find it difficult to answer the Zen question of "changing to change". It is because we have lived within the Western logic. There are several examples in this book, but I'll give you an example that I feel fits the best.
Another thing is that evolution is called phylogeny, but it is ontogenesis. I don't know if this life is better to be born or to become, but in short, everyone starts as a baby, becomes a child, and becomes a child. Becoming a young man, becoming an adult, becoming old and dying, this is something that must be done no matter what, and it cannot be reversed. Isn't this supposed to change after all? (P.166-167)
Why do we grow and why do we age? Science tries to explain it. At that time, I will bring up "molecules" and "quantum mechanics".
The reason for this is that reductionism is one of the promises of natural science, that if it is explained at a lower level, it is natural science. It seems that the world of physics and chemistry is doing well, but living things are a little more complicated, and I doubt whether such genes can really explain the problems of species and evolution. I think that even if we don't explain organisms in terms of genes, it would be fine if we could explain them in terms of the behaviors that the organisms themselves exhibit or by tracking those behaviors. (P.35)
"Gene therapy" and "mRNA vaccine" are born from reductionism.
Disease, Condition, and Pathogenesis
In modern times, people's awareness of illness has changed significantly, especially in the last half century. Disease has become a “presence of a pathogen” rather than a “medical condition”. Objective numbers and existence have come to determine the disease, not the condition or "awareness" of the disease. For example, "high blood pressure" is not a symptom but a "value". And the disease is not discovered by symptoms such as "headache" or "dizziness", but by "health checkup". Furthermore, the numbers are created and changed arbitrarily. In Japan, the standard value was changed from "160" to "130" in "Suddenly one day". Since that day, 30,000,000 people in Japan are said to have fallen ill. "Health" has changed from "having no problems in daily life" to "having normal values". Even if there is such a thing as normal blood pressure, I think that it varies from person to person, and even for the same person, it naturally changes depending on the situation and age. Blood pressure is not something that you consciously control, but your body should be able to properly control your blood pressure (up and down). Same with heart rate and breathing.
From the time micro-organisms were discovered, bacteria were discovered, viruses were discovered, and they were attributed to disease, the "plague" materialized. But it's still invisible. Doctors determine the presence of disease on behalf of religious people who "see the plague". The doctor's judgment was originally a medical condition, but now it is a scientific number. Or objective evidence such as PCR test.
But is "having a virus" the same as "being sick"? I think this is exactly what Imanishi calls reductionism.
Viruses and bacteria are everywhere. Their numbers and types vary from region to region and from season to season. No one will find out what viruses and bacteria are where and how much. Or perhaps there is no way to find out. Bacteria such as lactic acid bacteria and yeast that make alcoholic beverages are essential to our lives. We often hear the word intestinal bacteria recently, but we cannot live without bacteria. We do not live avoiding bacteria, but live in symbiosis with bacteria and viruses.
Antibiotics
Sake breweries are thoroughly managed to prevent so-called "miscellaneous bacteria" from entering. This is because the yeast of sake will quickly lose and die if bacteria invades. Conversely, bacteria such as yeast may play an active role in preserving foods such as fermented foods. Antibiotics are “substances produced by microorganisms that inhibit the growth of other microorganisms” (Wiki). Isn't it a kind of antibiosis that fermented foods prevent putrefaction?
Even if one antibiotic prevents the growth of one type of bacteria, we do not know what other types of bacteria it prevents. At least it doesn't prevent the growth of all bacteria. "Resistant bacteria" will soon appear in the evidence. We don't know everything about what kinds of bacteria and viruses exist in our surroundings (in the natural world) and how they interact with each other.
Disinfectants directly kill or inactivate bacteria and viruses, unlike antibiotics.There are various disinfectants, but disinfectants that destroy cell membranes are attached to all organisms with cell membranes. So of course there is also human skin.Conversely, it is not effective against viruses that do not have cell membranes.A large amount of disinfectants must have been used this time.How much did it kill and destroy the balance of microorganisms in the natural world? No one knows.
The idea of antibiotics is Hayek's idea of ``competition for survival between microorganisms''. It is completely opposite to the idea of "symbiosis (coexistence)" of Imanishi style ("corruption" and "fermentation", "antibiotic" and "symbiosis" are named by humans for human convenience).
Self and non-self
There is a tissue called mucosa in the throat. Specimens for PCR tests are collected from there, and there is a theory that the mucous membrane not only prevents viruses from entering, but also instructs the production of antibodies. Vaccination is done to create that immune system, and the most important mechanism of the immune system is to distinguish between "self and non-self." Because you don't want to destroy your own cells. The most difficult part of organ transplantation is that when an organ that does not belong to you is transplanted, you try to destroy it (rejection). Therefore, various immunosuppressants are used, but apart from the topic of the cellular level, are other people's organs (in the case of bacteria, there are organs of other animals) "self" in the first place?
Neither the food we eat nor the food we eat, such as animals and plants, are originally “my body”. At what point will they become my body? When will the transplanted organ become my body? In food (animals and plants) and "pig's heart", there is no distinction between "myself and others". Isn't the distinction between oneself and other than oneself the central idea of "I" now? I feel that there is an "arrogance" called individualism and anthropocentrism.
Parts and Whole
The idea that organs can be replaced is the idea that if you collect skin and organs, you can make a human being, and a human being is a collection of organs. This can be said to be the idea that the whole can be divided into parts, and that the set of parts is the whole. It's just a set theory of mathematics.
Suppose we have a set A. This is the "whole". Its elements a, b, c, ... are "parts". For example, if there is a whole called ``human'', ``Taro'', ``Jiro'', and so on are the parts. Furthermore, Taro can be decomposed into the elements of "head, arms, legs, ...". Alternatively, it can be decomposed into parts such as "skin black, middle point, bone, organ...". But it is clear that the collection of "skin... organs..." is not "the whole called Taro". The relationship between the elements is very important there. So you need to think about the relationship between each element of your relationship. ``When you think of the whole ``close (set)'', there is a common point between the elements, that is, the common point that they are elements of the set. However, the common point does not form the whole set. The relationship between them is incorporated in set theory, and there is also a concept called group theory. In fact, when we think about a set, we assume the number and properties of its elements, as well as the relationships between the elements, but here the rules are reversed. This is because the premises are carefully incorporated "ex post facto".
A similar reversal phenomenon is occurring in "environmental problems" and "ecology," without knowing mathematics and philosophy (logic). After the war, large amounts of DDT were sprayed to kill pests (including whiteness). This is the idea of removing the element of pests from the total set of organisms. However, in reality, the pests were not exterminated, and on the contrary, large outbreaks occurred, other pests appeared in large numbers, and birds and fish decreased sharply. Some species are extinct. Not only that, the pest quickly developed resistance. It's like antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This is a whole mix-up. The whole is not a collection of parts, but the premise that each element and the relationship between elements are known. It should be possible for human beings to remove and add elements for the first time when they understand the premise. But the whole thing is incomprehensible.
The idea that ``the whole is a combination of parts'' and ``the whole can be divided into parts'' is very Hayek-esque (modern Western). It is the idea that "if you change, the whole will change", and it is in line with Darwin's theory of evolution that "if the individual changes, the species will change". This is an idea that must be derived from cause and effect theory (causal theory). Since we do not know the whole, the parts, or their relationships, we seek the cause in the visible "part (existence)" and explain the change in the invisible "whole (existence itself)". The opposite is reductionism, which explains the visible with the invisible. And the subject of that explanation is me (human), and I have the eyes of a monotheistic God. It's like saying, "If I think (if I discover) the world will change."
It is a ``mistake between existence and existence'', and the ``world'' created by the ``ego'' added to it.
That kind of influence is strong for me too. I grew up in evolution and science. Because I live in the "ego". For me, I can't just accept Imanishi's remarks about the idea of "changing to change." However, I feel that the very big feeling contained in it can be a hint. I can't help but worry.
Freedom
If living things "change as they should," what about humans or human society? If it is also said to be "change as it should," the individual's subjectivity does not make sense.
Conversely, orthodox Darwinism implicitly assumes the subjectivity and will of living things. The term “natural selection” certainly sounds objective. And very objective. This is because the very idea of ``individuals trying to survive'' through ``competition for survival'' presupposes ``will of the subject'', without even bringing up ``sexual selection''. We have a habit of "personifying" when we look at the living world. It looks like dogs are competing for food and plants are competing for nutrients and sunlight.
You could say that the thermostat turns on the air conditioner because it thinks it's hot. Or maybe the tips of your toes curl up because your toes think it will keep them warm, or maybe the plants grow towards the sun because they believe they should. Indeed, there are many cultures, including Pidahan and Wari, that use the phrase that beliefs exist in animals, clouds, trees, etc., as a means of conversation. But most of the tribes I lived with and researched were not literally meant to hold such beliefs.
Belief is the state that occurs when the body (including the brain) is directed toward something, whether it be a concept or a plant. Beliefs are formed by individuals participating in language and culture. (Daniel L. Everett, "Origin of Language Humanity The Greatest Inventions of ” Hakuyosha, p.415)
Here, Everett's "belief" is mistaken for "will." The reason we think plants and thermostats have a will is because we have to have a will. Because that is the basis of "freedom". And it is the dominant belief in "modern Western culture". A person without a will, such as an old man with dementia, cannot be recognized as a "personality." Thermostats, plants, and elderly people with dementia either think that they “have a will” or dismiss them as “not”, which is a culture of choice. Only those who have a will are "a culture that allows social participation" and "a culture that recognizes that they are participating in society". Until a century ago, women were thought to have no will.
There is a discourse that ``mankind has evolved in search of freedom,'' but that is just looking at the past from the present. ``Beliefs are formed by language and culture,'' so 100, 200, or 1,000 years ago, the culture was different from today, but we see it through the eyes of today's culture. . Just like I don't know what you think, I don't know what people thought 100 years ago. It is just a prejudice that "now is the peak of evolution" and "the most righteous and justice is realized". "People 100 years ago were less fortunate than people today"? Isn't it arrogant to think so?
History and subject
A long time ago, at a certain point in humankind, did an individual invent a language thinking, "Language is convenient, so let's create it"? . Did anyone hear and understand the language? And did that individual survive and give birth to many offspring because it was "advantageous for survival"? No one saw that point. However, I don't think the baby will talk because he thinks it would be convenient if he could talk. Birds don't learn to fly thinking, "It would be convenient if I could fly." Seeking subjectivity in history (evolution) is nothing more than looking at the past from the perspective of modernity or subjectivity. Recently, I feel abhorrence of anthropocentrism, or rather, egocentrism, such as "I think this way, so people, animals, and plants must have thought this way in the past." I myself have such a prejudice when I look at other people, animals, plants, parents, women, children, historical figures, thermostats, and all things from the perspective of modern subjectivity. Because there is
I lived in an era of rapid economic growth, and my illusion that "new things are good" is crumbling. No matter how many commercials are played, the illusion that "new products" are "good", "excellent", and "delicious" is not realistic. However, "old things" are not left in the disposable culture after the high growth period. And old "things" only have meaning in the environment in which they were made and used. There is no environment where you can use it even if you want to use it, such as a flip phone, analog TV, or record. People, things, animals and plants do not exist by themselves.
"Existence itself" and "nature" cannot be positively defined. This is because as soon as it is defined, "existence itself" becomes an "object", that is, an "existence". And that "negativity" is not capitalistic. What Hayek tries to define as "instinct" or "innate feeling" is an expression of that negativity. Hayek calls it "socialist", but it is more like anarchism. This is because the socialist countries that exist today are exactly what Hayek called "a mass of rules." It doesn't matter if it's democratic or dictatorial. The arrogance that humans can "control and control" society and nature is common to both capitalist and socialist countries.
I feel that the only way to escape from this darkness is to think that both society and nature should be able to do so.