Collected Philosophical Essays of Watsuji

Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Akita International University in Japan. He has previously worked at Japan Women’s University, Ritsumeikan Asian Pacific University, and Rikkyo University. His research focuses on contemporary conceptions of the good life, environmental issues, and the ethical thought of Watsuji Tetsurō. He previously received a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) to research the environmental issue of anthropocentrism. His publications include the monograph The History and Ethics of Authenticity (2020), the translation of Watsuji Tetsurō’s memories of Natsume Sōseki: “Until I met Sōseki” and “Sōseki’s Character” in Journal of East Asian Philosophy (2025), Watsuji Tetsurō’s Attempt at an Autobiography (2026) Hawaii University Press, and the research articles ‘Beyond Anthropocentrism: A Watsujian Ecological Ethic’ in Asian Philosophy (2025), and ‘Rethinking The Replacement of Physicians with AI’ in American Philosophical Quarterly (2025). Takeshi Morisato is Lecturer of Non-Western Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is a specialist in Japanese and World Philosophies. He is editor of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy and associate editor of the Journal of East Asian Philosophy. He is regional editor of the Bloomsbury Introduction to World Philosophies series. He is the author of Tanabe Hajime and the Kyoto School: Self, World and Knowledge (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Faith and Reason in Continental and Japanese Philosophy: Reading Tanabe Hajime and William Desmond (Bloomsbury, 2019). He is co-editor of The Dialectic of Absolute Nothingness: The Legacy of German Philosophy in the Kyoto School (Cornell University Press, 2023), Vanishing Subjectivity: Flower, Shame, and Direct Cultivation in Asian Philosophies (Mimesis International, 2021) and Asian Philosophical Texts: Exploring Hidden Sources (Mimesis International, 2020). He is also a translator and Ōhashi Ryōsuke, Kyoto School and Imperial Japanese Navy: Over New Historical Material, ‘Ōshima’s Memorandum’ is forthcoming with Bloomsbury, 2024.

The virtue of this volume is to weave into an extensible whole the various strands of Watsuji’s enduring contributions to global philosophy. Morisato’s and Shuttleworth’s translations and commentaries demonstrate the development, range, and interconnection of Watsuji’s signature and often controversial ideas about the national, cultural, ethical, and climate-related dimensions of human existence.

• Watsuji on Climate, Ethics, and Nationality1. A Consideration of National Character (1928)2. Climate (1929)3. Historical Reflections on the Study of Climate (1935)1. The Study of Climate up to Herder2. Herder’s Climatology of Spirit3. Hegel’s Climatic Philosophy4. The Study of Climate After Hegel4. Various Aspects of Virtue (1942)1. Virtue as Gain2. Virtue as Aretē 3. Virtue as the Way of Human Relations4. The Unity of the Virtues5. Unity as the Fundamental Law of Human Existence5. America’s National Character (1944)1. Anglo-Saxon Character as the Basis of America’s National Character2. Immigration to America3. Development of the Hobbesian Character in America4. Development of the Baconian Character in America5. The Pioneering Character6. The History of Ethical Thought in Japan: An Introduction (1952)AppendixIndex