It is said that there exist two spheres in all civilizations; the material culture which is physically visible, and the spiritual culture which is internalized, and I believe the more important of these two is the“internalized spirit,” or the “spiritual culture,”which may be rephrased as “the dignity of the civilization.” The principle of civilization that the Japanese have nurtured since the time of the Jomon period was at one of the highest spiritual levels among all other principles that have been created by other countries in the world. However,it appears that,since the Meiji period,we the Japanese have been blinded by the energy of the material culture of the western world and have lost sight of that spiritual height. Fragments of that spiritual culture can still be found deeply embedded within the hearts of those that were born before the period of high economic growth. What is required now is to create a new principle of civilization that incorporates those spiritual heights and to move onward to an age of the civilization of life, in which the institutions, organizations, and devices are embodiments of that spirit.
雑誌名
比較文明研究
雑誌名(英)
Journal for the Comparative Study of Civilizations
文明の精神
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073-102 安田喜憲
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