Research
Faculty and Student Conference Presentations at the International Society of East Asian Philosophy Annual Conference – Dr. Kyle Shuttleworth and Ms. Mayuka Yamazaki
Dr. Kyle Shuttleworth, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in AIU’s Global Connectivity Program, and his seminar student, Mayuka Yamazaki, presented their research at the International Society of East Asian Philosophy Conference on ‘Philosophy and Technology’ at Fukuoka University.
Conference & Presentation Outline
International Society of East Asian Philosophy
Fukuoka, Japan
Hosted by Fukuoka University
Title: Watsuji and Miki’s Philosophies of Technology
Presenter: Dr. Kyle Shuttleworth
Description: With the increasing development of modern technology, philosophical thought has simultaneously emerged to help us rethink our relationship to technology. In Japanese philosophy circles, Miki Kiyoshi (1897-1945) is widely recognised for taking up this challenge in The Philosophy of Technology (1942), where he offers a positive appraisal of technology. Watsuji Tetsurō (1889-1960), on the other hand, is known for his contribution to ethics, and did not compose any dedicated texts to the philosophy of technology. Nevertheless, in this research presentation, Dr. Shuttleworth argued that Watsuji does possess a philosophy of technology in his controversial essay ‘America’s National Character’ (1944). Moreover, despite the historical context within which Watsuji and Miki’s ideas developed, Dr. Shuttleworth claimed that there are lessons to be learned for our contemporary relation to technology. More specifically, Dr. Shuttleworth suggested that Watsuji warns us about overdependence on technology, whilst Miki, who is more optimistic, claims that we need to tame technology to prevent us from becoming slaves to machines.
Title: Watsuji in Relation to Technology: “Betweenness” (間柄) and ChatGPT
Presenter: Mayuka Yamazaki
Description: Dr. Shuttleworth’s philosophy seminar student, Mayuka Yamazaki, also presented her research at the conference. Mayuka’s presentation focused on Watsuji Tetsurō’s concept of betweenness (間柄) and ChatGPT. Mayuka’s argument was that since generative AI has become ingrained in daily life, that we need to rethink our relationship to such technology. To achieve this aim, Mayuka focused on ChatGPT as an example of generative AI, and argued that since Watsuji’s concept of betweenness only applies to human beings, that this idea needs to be expanded further. Mayuka proposed her original idea of ‘neo-betweenness’, which extends Watsuji’s idea to non-human beings. Presenting at a professional academic conference, which is something one usually achieves during doctoral research, was a great achievement for Mayuka. Her research presentation was also very well received, generating positive comments and questions. providing support for the continuation of her research and philosophical studies.
Mayuka Yamazaki has also written about her experience presenting at the conference in a separate article on the university’s Japanese webpage.
The Conference
This was the 4th annual conference of International Society of East Asian Philosophy (ISEAP), which was conducted over two days (14-15 December) and focused on ‘Science, technology, and East Asian Philosophy’ featuring 24 panels, with over 70 presenters from all across Europe, America, and Asia. There were two keynote speakers: Professor Yuk Hui (Erasmus University Rotterdam) who gave a talk ‘On the Concept of Technodiversity’, and Professor Shigeru Taguchi (Hokkaido University), who spoke about ‘What is the Mind? Redefining Consciousness from a Japanese Philosophical Perspective’.
Professor Florent Domenach, Director of the Global Connectivity Program, also attended the conference and met with speakers about possible future guest lectures and other collaboration projects with AIU faculty members in the field of philosophy and technology.