For New Developments at UTCP

Underneath superficial and extremely unbalanced “prosperity,” humanity faces a serious “crisis”. This crisis is so serious that it is questionable whether we can even call it a “crisis of humanity”, or whether we need to approach it as something more.

Where has “humanity” gone under the immense and amalgamated dynamism of science, technology, economy, politics, and culture, one which is not without contradiction, confrontation and/or conflict, and has appeared on a global scale in this era of globalization? Nietzsche solemnly confirmed the “death of God” one hundred and some odd years ago, but do we already have to prepare for the “death of humanity” as well? Whatever “human beings" may be, we are, first of all and above all, beings that must “live together.” As such, our ultimate question is how to cultivate ways for “living together”. This question should be examined across various different fields and cultures, which is to say that it should be open to radical discussion.

For the last five years, we have been building a world “philosophy” network in order to pursue our questioning through international “dialogue” under the auspices of the 21st Century COE program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Now, building on this foundation, we have received the opportunity to continue our research and education programs under the support of the Ministry’s Global COE program.

I too renew my determination to make UTCP a ground for open discussion aimed at questioning “humanity” itself as a “crisis” through a critical examination of the current state of world history.

--Yasuo Kobayashi
(Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo)