Zeitschrift für Pädagogik

Humanistic Education in East Asia: With special reference to the work of Ogyu Sorai and Motoori Norinaga

Zusammenfassung

Abstract: The term "humanistic education" can adopt a range of meanings, varying with the interpretation of "humanistic" or "human." For this investigation, humanistic education refers to education that emphasizes humanistic studies (studia humanitatis) such as language, literature, and history, which aims to make a human being truly "human." The basic insight of this education is that, as language is an essential characteristic of humanity, its care and cultivation is crucial in humanistic education. This original meaning of humanistic education was developed during the Renaissance. Despite this narrow definition of humanistic education, a similar trend can be found in East Asian traditions, especially in the original teachings of Confucius. In this article, I first discuss the humanistic features of the original Confucian thoughts, as expressed in his Analects (Chapter 1). Second, I consider the significance of a Japanese Confucian scholar, Ogyu Sorai, who developed the Japanese humanistic interpretation of Confucian texts (Chapter 2). This is followed by an examination of the central thoughts of Motoori Norinaga, who transplanted Sorai´s interpretation into the study of classical Japanese literature (Chapter 3). Finally, I consider future dimensions of East Asian humanism by referring to both Sorai and Norinaga (Chapter 4).



Keywords: Humanistic Education, Confucianism, East Asian Education, Aesthetic Education, Hermeneutics