This conference was designed for the further exchange of graduate students from Peking University, Seoul National University, and the University of Tokyo. The 7th meeting was organized by the Department of Philosophy and BK21 Group for Philosophical Education and Research at Seoul National University.

From the University of Tokyo, over ten members, including faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from both the Hongo and Komaba campus, participated in the conference. Among them, from Komaba, Futoshi Hoshino (UTCP) and two graduate students (Yudai Suzuki and Akito Sakasai) presented their papers.

I gave a paper titled “Sublimity and Temporality: A Reading of Longinus’ On the Sublime.” Dealing with the notion of sublime in Longinus, I related it to the two aspects of the time (kairos and aion), and demonstrated the significance of the sense of time in Longinus. Although my paper focused mainly on the sublime in the context of ancient rhetoric, I received rich comments that properly related my paper to wider context of philosophy.

Mr. Suzuki gave a paper titled “Actions, Reasons, and Justification,” elaborating the philosophy of action; Mr. Sakasai’s paper, “Ara Masahito’s Discussion of Dogi during the Immediate Postwar Period in Japan: Possibilities and Problems,” dealt with the issue of responsibility in postwar Japan through a reading of Ara Masahito.

Besides three plenary sessions, I enjoyed the parallel sessions that included a great variety of presentations from ancient to contemporary, and from Western to Eastern philosophy.

Thanks to the members of SNU, all of us enjoyed the rich presentations and stimulating discussions at the conference. We especially wish to express our most sincere gratitude to Professor Lee Sukjae and faculty members of department of philosophy at SNU for their generous support. (See also the report by graduate students in Japanese.)

(Report: Futoshi Hoshino)