Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science

363 Pages·1995·1.271 MB·English

by  David Williams

Japan and the enemies of open
political science
‘This is an ambitious, controversial, ground-breaking and timely
book…It deploys a cross-disciplinary scholarship of exceptional
range and depth to argue a position of considerable importance—
that the Japanese achievement warrants making a significant
revision of western social science so as to correct the Eurocentric
biases that are inherent in its dominant methodologies…’
John Gray, Fellow, Jesus College,
University of Oxford

The central argument of Japan and the Enemies of Open Political
Science is that Eurocentric blindness is not a moral but a scientific
failing. In this wide-ranging critique of western social science,
Anglo-American philosophy and French theory, Williams works on
the premise that Japan is the most important political system of
our time. He also explains why social scientists have been so keen
to ignore or denigrate Japan’s achievements. If social science is to
meet the needs of the ‘Pacific Century’, it requires a sustained act
of intellectual demolition and subsequent renewal.
David Williams is Senior Research Fellow in Japanese Politics at
the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield. He is the
author of Japan: Beyond the End of History (Routledge 1994).

Japan and the enemies of
open political science
David Williams
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1996 David Williams
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying, and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without the
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-42775-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-73599-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-11130-7 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11131-5 (pbk)
This book is, and has been since my youth,
more precious than country and kin and public
advancement—indeed, for me, it is these things.
Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander

For my parents
and for
St Antony’s College, Oxford
where this book began to take shape

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xxiii
Glossary xxv
Japanese conventions and English usage xxviii
Part I Japan: the splendour of its prime
1 Japan and the European political canon 3
2 Where are the masters? 15
Part II Japanese greatness and the European inheritance
Science
3 Positivism 51
4 Empiricism 97
5 Orientalism 140
Words
6 Languages 157
7 Criticism 172
8 Readers 198
Thought
9 Philosophies 217
ix