Kiyozawa Manshi’s Two Theories of Evolution and Their Western Inspiration

• Published in: Journal of Japanese philosophy 2023, Vol.9 (9), p.77-99
• Main Author: PROOI, Dennis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Buddhism; Evolution; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; Lotze, Rudolf Hermann; Philosophers; Philosophy
• ISSN: 2327-0195; 2327-0209; 2327-0209
• DOI: 10.1353/jjp.2023.a913631

"1 Inoue Enryö (1858-1919), undoubtedly the Meiji period's most successful public philosopher, came to embrace many Spencerian ideas on evolution under the influence of Toyama Masakazu (1848-1900), a devout Spencerian, during his time as a student there (from 1881 to 1885).2 Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853-1908), an American philosopher who exerted great influence over the university's young philosophical minds, was working on a synthesis of the Spencerian and Hegelian philosophical systems.3 He had been brought to Tokyo University by the Darwinian zoologist Edward S. Morse (1838-1925), who was himself instrumental in the spread of evolutionary ideas. Spencer prided himself in having been the hrst to formulate the principle of evolution, remarking in the revised version of Social Statics (1892) that he had arrived at the general idea as early as 1850, many years before The Origin of Species had appeared in print.4 From Spencer's point of view, Darwin had done no more than confirm a posteriori for biological organisms what was in fact an a priori law of evolution, established by Spencer in First Principles (1867) both inductively and deductively as the universal tendency of phenomena to pass from "an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity," a process accompanied by "an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion. The opposing camp of German philosophy-following William Hamilton (17881856), derided by Spencer as "absolute theorisers"-made abundant use of such metaphysics to defend a teleological understanding of evolution-the kind of understanding Darwin (with his emphasis on the non-teleological character of natural selection) and Spencer (with his focus on matter in motion) attempted to render obsolete? Under the influence of Fenollosa, many students of philosophy at Tokyo University became attracted to the alternative German teleological model of evolution, the history of which via the German Romantics goes back to Leibniz's attempt to reintroduce into physics the idea of final causes after these in that domain had been eliminated by Descartes.7 Descartes, to begin with, was the one to revolutionize natural philosophy by reducing the physical world to one of matter in motion ruled by efficient causation, imagining, much like Spencer two centuries later, that such a minimalist view of the natural world would suffice to bring universal order to primordial chaos without the continuing active intervention of God.8 S