31.05.2023AOI LECTURE: Against a "Tyranny of the Contemporary": Modern Japanese Thought in the Light of Intergenerational Environmental Ethics

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Abe (Kyoto University)

Date and Time: Mittwoch, 31. Mai 2023, 18:00-20:00 Uhr

Location: Universität Zürich, Asien-Orient-Institut, Raum RAA E29, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich

Abstract: How can we avoid a "tyranny of the contemporary" (Stephen Gardiner) that could threaten coming generations and their future natural environment. Some economists in Japan have recently proposed to find an answer to this question through a social experiment called "future design". In its current version, this attempt is tied to a present-centered idea of responsibility. Drawing on the Japanese philosopher Shuzo Kuki, Hiroshi Abe proposes a way to overcome this present-oriented bias without contradiction to the idea of self-responsibility.

Hiroshi Abe is Professor of Philosophy and Logic at Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan). In 2017, he received the German Federal President's Philipp Franz von Siebold Prize. He recently co-edited Environmental Philosophy and East Asia: Nature Time Responsibility (Routledge, 2022).

Organization: Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, UZH