Jizen-keiken 自全経験.

 

Self-sufficient and independent experience.

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Cf. Miyamoto Wakichi et al, eds., Japanese Dictionary of Philosophy (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1922), p. 396:

 

“This is a term that Motora Yūjirō 元良勇次郎 (1858–1912) coined for defining the ‘experience that, without waiting for the other, satisfies the demand of the self in itself,” namely experience that is ‘satisfactory in and of itself.’ It stands in opposition to the ‘dependent experience’ (fuzen-keiken 不全経験) which signifies the ‘experience that is incapable of satisfying the self’s demand in and of itself but depends on the other for its completion,’ namely ‘the experience that points toward an other that is absent and completes itself through the realization of the other.’ For instance, when we see a piece of red paper in front of our eyes and see it as being both red and smooth, our feeling of the red is satisfactory in itself; hence, it is a jizenkeiken, while the smoothness of the paper can be discovered only through touching it. It is only suggested in our vision, and given indirectly; hence it belongs to the fuzenkeiken. The most content of our usual experiences belongs to this fuzen-keiken and our world is generally the suggested world. This means that, on the one hand, there are developments and expansions of the range of our experience while, on the other, contradictions and errors are generated. That is because the new relations are developed through the realization of the suggested content, while simultaneously the complicated suggestions contradict with each other or generate the suggestions that do not comply to the facts.” Motora studied empirical psychology, philosophy (under John Dewey), and received a PhD in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in 1888. He became the first psychologist in Japan and left many works on psychology, education, and philosophy of religion.

 

Takeshi Morisato

2018

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Author Citation Information

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Morisato, Takeshi, "Jizen-keikein", ODIP: The Online Dictionary of Intercultural Philosophy (2018), Thorsten Botz-Bornstein (ed.), URL = <https://www.odiphilosophy.com/jizen>.