Misaki's Blog 2008

My Thirteenth Day of Class (Oil and International Political Economy)

2008-08-18T16:51:00.001+09:00

8/14 (Thu)

My Twelfth Day of Class (EU)

2008-08-18T16:48:00.001+09:00

8/13(Wed)

My Eleventh Day of Class (Globalization and North-South Relations)

2008-08-18T16:46:00.002+09:00

8/12 (Tue)

My Tenth Day of Class (International Political Economy)

2008-08-18T16:21:00.003+09:00

8/11 (Mon)

Is the concept of 'nationa states' are already old-fashioned because we are more economically interdependent one another? Let's think about the relationship between politics and economics.

According to 'The Nature of Political Economy' written by Robert Glipinpower, the relationship between politics and economics can be translated into the relationship between 'power and wealth.'
Thus, we can regard political economy as the study of the relationship or the reciprocal interaction between power and wealth.

There are three conceptions of political economy: Liberalism, Marxism, and mercantilism.
A question is raised here. Is the essence of economic relations harmonious or conflictual?
If you think the former opotion is resonable, you prefer Liberalism. And the latter, Marxism or Mercantilism.

I have lots of thing to write down more. I will update as soon as possible.

During the class we had a extra discussion on Russia-Georgia Conflict.
We are assigned to read a article 'In Georgia and Russia, a Perfect Brew for a Blowup' from the New York Times.

My Nineth Day of Class (Mid-term Exam)

2008-08-10T02:38:00.006+09:00

8/7 (Thu)

Today I had a mid-term exam!!
The instructor gave out a sheet of review paper so that the students could prepare for the exam.

The exam consists of two parts: short identifications and essay.

It was a bit surprise for me that a student finished it and left a classroom in 30 minutes.
The instructor asked us to write down the basic knowledges we studied during last classes. That is why the questions were comparatively easy. However, I found it difficult to get right to the point when I wrote down my answers for each question.

My Eighth Day of Class (Clash of Civilization and Terrorism)

2008-08-09T17:40:00.003+09:00

8/6(Wed)

My Seventh Day of Class (Foreign Policy Models)

2008-08-09T17:38:00.003+09:00

8/5(Tue)

How are specific policy descisions actually made?
Are you interested in the decision-making process in a political field?
Today I learned three models of the decision making through the article 'Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis' written by Graham T. Allison, an American political scientist.
The three models are Rational Policy Model, Beauraucratics Policy Model, and Interest Group Policy Model. He uses cuban crisis as a case study to analyze foreign policy models.

My Sixth Day of Class (Wars)

2008-08-09T16:35:00.002+09:00

The title of today's class is 'why do states fight wars?'
Wars and peace are central concerns in IR.

Realism would answer for the question as follows.....
The causes of wars are:
●Anarchy and self-help system
●Break of Balance of Power in the international system
●Security dilemma

The solutions for wars are:
●Maintain Balance of Power
●Derrerrance

Liberalism would answer as follows......
The causes of wars are:
●Domestic politics
●Failour/lack of democracy and cooperative regimes

The solutions for wars are:
●Cooperation under security dilemma
●Iterated interaction
●international institutions

Marxism would answer as follows........
The causes of wars are:
●Competition over leardership of global economy
●The legacy of colonialism (North-South relations and wars)
●Civil wars and humanitarian intervention
●State failure, terrorism, drug wars
●The export of arms

The solution for wars is:
●Delink from capitalism

Constructivism would answer as follows.......
The causes of wars are:
●Aggresive norms
●Misperception/Misunderstanding
●identity conflict

The solutions for wars is:
●Positive intersubjective understanding

Defineing the causes are very important to solve the problems. Each theory help us to get closer to the truth.

My Fifth Day of Class (Constructivism)

2008-08-04T08:44:00.006+09:00

7/31 (Thu)

Today is the final day for learning IR theories. Today we covered Constructivism.
Its main arguments are:
●Reality is not given but socially constructed
●Ideas/Identity mattes the most
●Our language is important - reflect our ideas
●Our perspective not only shapes how and what we see, but the meaning we take
from it
●The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss
●Emphasize culture, norms, ideas, identity, socialization, ideology,
language,cognition over utility
●Shared ideas, norms, ets can promote cooperatioin

In summary, constructivism claims that reality is constructed by our ideas or perceptions. For example, let's think about international system which realism and liberalism call it 'anarchy.' Constructivism believes that 'anarchical' international system was created by us. It did not preexist. Because we think other countries are not reliable and fearful, we perceive the world as anarchy.
Constructivism analyzes international issues focusing on how ideas affects on them.

My Forth Day of Class (Marxism)

2008-08-04T08:26:00.003+09:00

7/30(Wed)

Marxism is the third theory for me to learn in the course. Marxism mainly explains inequality in the world. For example, it can explain questions like 'why are there rich and poor people and states?' and 'how do we explain the poverty in the third world countries?.' The students in the class guessed that corruption, raw material export, capitalism, colonialism, ethnic conflicts, HIV/AIDS, and the system of world economy might be raised to explain the above questions.
First, let me show you the overview of Marxism in international relatioins.

●Classes drive politics
●Marckets are inherently exploitative, and produce class conflicts
●The state and its foreign policies reflect elite interests
●The expansion of marckets leads to colonialism
- International system is not anarchical but hierachical
- International conflicts are found in global economic competition
●Post-WWⅡprovides new forms of neo-colonialism

Marx believed in capitalist societies that classes determined by the mode of production are devided into the Bourgeosie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeosis has its land and capital to product. In contrary, the Proletariat has nothing but its labor to make ends meet. Thus, the Bourgeosis exploits the Proletariat, which creat a hierarchical society. Applying this Marxism to international system, Marxism in international relations considers that world can be divided between 'Core' and 'Periphery' states. In this system, it is believed that 'Core' states such as the U.S, the Europian countries, and Japan expoit 'Perophery' states such as the African countries, the Asian countries, and the Latin America countries. 'Core' states export manufactured goods to which high value added to 'Periphery' states which exports cheap raw materials and labor to which low value added. Between two sides, there exists uneven terms of trade which yields inequality in the world.

My Third Day of Class(Liberalism)

2008-07-29T13:24:00.004+09:00

7/29(Tue)

Today we covered 'liberalism' which is also one of major international relations theories. Historically, Immanuel Kant and Woodrow Wilson are famous for advocates of liberalism.
Now let me show the overview of liberalism in brief here.

●Core belief - Spreding democracy, global economic ties, and strengthing peace
●Wars are not inevitable
●Wars can be reduced by institutional arrangement
●Collective security as a possible
●Interdependency
●Other actors such as NGO, international organizations, multinational coｒporations are included
●Democratic countries do not fight one another

Key Actors:
●States
●International institutions (UN, WTO, etc)
●Non governmental groups
●Multinational coporations
＊States are not unitary/autonomous actors as realists think because they have many intersts and layers in a domestic politics.

Classical liberalism:
Classical liberalism has a belief that human nature is good by nature, and that democracy and
capitalism are keys to make for peace. Kant explains that democracy, trade, and international institutions are essence of peaceful world.
As for trade, there are three reasons to analyze why trade is a good way for peace. First, it is because no one want to destroy their trade relations when trade due to war and military conflicts. Second, trade provides routine interactions between two countries
Third, countries go hand in hand with democracy.
Next, let me describe why international institutions are also the means to establish the peaceful world. It is because internatinoal institutions provide an arena for iterated interactions. And, international institutions have common rules to make each country obey. Also, international institutions provide information to all members. This brings transparency amon countries via international institutions.
Finally, the reason why democracy are needed for peace is because citizens can vote for electing their president, and thus, stop waging wars even if the president wanted to go to war. In other words, the president cannot go to war if he/she did not gain domestic support for war.

At first, I was confused with Kant's theory which capitalism is neccessary for peace because I had read Lenin's article 'From Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism' before I learned Kant's theory in the class. There are lots of theories in international relations, they are competing one another. We should pick up best theories which would apply for contemporary politics. And it is better to be flexible about applying theories to real situations happening in the world.

The class reading for today's content is 'Liberalism and World Politics' written by Michael W. Doyle. You can read the article by clicking the following URL.

http://homepages.stmartin.edu/fac_staff/rlangill/PLS%20300/Liberalism%20and%20World%20Politics%20Doyle.htm

My Second Day of Class(Realism)

2008-07-29T08:17:00.009+09:00

7/28(Mon)

Today is my second day of class. Its main argument is about Realism in IR.
Realism is one of major IR theories.
The instructor presented an overview of realism to us in the begging of the class.

The way of seeing the world politics for realism is:
1.War is natural and inevitable
2.International system is anarchy
3.States are fundamentally concerned with national interest
4.Power is key to national interest(survive, military strength, wealth, etc)
5.Relative gains is better than absolute gains for realism
6.Talk is cheap(because the strength to survive is much important for realism)

International System
●The international system is anarchic
●"No government over governments"
●No 911 in international system
●Self-help
These descriptions of international system suggest that there is no such people or organization like police and firefighters to protect you or save you in the world. In addition, there is no absolute authorities to restrict each state's behavior. Therefore, you cannot rely on any other states. That is why you should protect you by yourself and cannot ask for help when you need it because international system is anarchic.

Key Actors
●The states
●Rational, unitary actors calculating on the basis of their "national interest" ('Rational' in this context means that the states know the means to achieve their goals.)
●State power - the key means to seek for national interest
　　　　　　　 - the primary determinant of international relations

Balance of Power
●the ratio of power between states and alliance of states
●balancing occurs out of fear for survival
●war occurs due to imbalances
●balance of power creates three types of polarity
1.Biopolarity(like the U.S and Soviet Union during Cold War)
2.Multipolarity
3.Unipolarity
During the class we discussed which polarity is better for stability in world politics. Most students told that multipolarity is better because, according to one student, they can check one another.

The flaws of Realism
Realism neglects
●non-state actors such as NGO or individual people
●domestic politics
●morality
●weak states
●human rights
These are some parts of explanation of realism. I am quite convinced with its theory. We cannot deny the fact that the state as well as an individual has interest and desire. That is why we sometimes conflict each other and wage wars. What is impressed in the article 'One world, rival theories' is the sentence, "a ruthless pragmatism about power can actually yield a more peaceful world." I agree with the statement because just an ideal plan which is drawing a perfect world cannot help the conflicts in the world.
スライド 4スライド 4

Obama's speech in Berlin

2008-07-27T02:14:00.006+09:00

In my first day of class, the instructor told us that reading a good news paper such as New York Times and Wall Street Journal will help us understand some current IR issues in class. Therefore, I tried to read some articles on New York Times website.
And I want to show you three pictures from the website.

You can notice Barack Obama in the picture. Then, do you know where he is? He is not in the U.S, but in Berlin, Germany. I can hardly believe my eyes! Such incredible number of people gathering together to listen to his speech! When I see these pictures, I think as if he was in the U.S. You can listen to his speech by accessing to the below URL.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=03fd064efe9f97792bbaa5fa6c33f3a17a188833

Three of these pictures were taken from 'The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/24/world/0724-OBAMAGERMANY_index.html)'

My First Day of Class

2008-07-25T12:16:00.002+09:00

7/24(Thu)
Today was my first day of class. My class is held at from 2:20 p.m. to 4:50 from Monday through Thursday. The instructor wraped up today's lecture earlier than the normal time.
My instructor is Korean and in PhD course in Political Science.

By the way, he distributed a sheet of syllabus and carefully explained it. According to the syllabus, I have midtem exam on 7 August, final exam on 21 August, and pop-up quiz. Pop-up quiz is going to be like what is the argument of Kant or what is the argument of Jervis. He told us that it is easy to solve if we read the articles in the textbook.

Then, let me write about today's content. After we looked over the syllabus, we thought about International Relations(IR), theory, and the step for theorizing. First, what is IR? Before answering for the question, the instructor gave us an idea that this course 'Introduction to IR' is for answering WHY do things happen the way they happen in that way. Then, he explained us that IR is the scientific study of the interaction of people or states across state borders. In this sentence, the word 'the interaction' makes a difference between IR and comparative politics. Second, the instructor gave us a question about what is a theory. After a few second, two students in a class suggested that it is an explanation or an educated guess. As they suggested, the instructor told us that theory is an attempt to find general and causal explanation.

Third, what was most interesting topic was studying the step for theorizing. Here, he introduced us the term 'Dependent Variable' and 'Independent Variable.' The first thing for us to theorize about a phenomenon is finding a puzzle, reserch question. For example, let's think about the puzzle of WHY the percentage of those who are saying the U.S is ready to have Black president is rising. In this puzzle, dependent variable is the rising persentage of people who are supporting for black president. During class, the students examined what independent variable is. Some guesses were raised. For instance, rising gas price, dislike of the other candidates, global influence, generation change, media, or good looking.

The important thing of theory is defining independent valiable. It is because the world would be disaster if we failed to define the correct independent variable. In short, independent variable is like the cause of the happening or accident. If we misdefined the cause in the process of solving the happening or accident, we could bring another disaster to the world.

That is all about today's class. I have no class on Friday. So, I will spend time preparing for the next class on Monday.

Misaki

2008-07-24T16:20:00.002+09:00

My Roommate

2008-07-23T03:36:00.006+09:00

I moved to my dormetory today at 5:30 p.m.
My roommate is HSIAO-FANG PENG from Taiwan. She is 22 years old and studying English at the UW.

What surprised me most was that she gave me a welcoming card and a gift from Taiwan.
Please take a look at the pictures.

Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism

2008-07-21T08:26:00.005+09:00

In the morning, we studied for two hours at the Cafe on the Avenue.
On Sunday every library opens at 1 p.m. So, we descided to study at the cafe in the morning and at the Asian library in the evening.

In two pictures on the left side, you can see Yuri and Fumi for each picture. Do you see Yuri on the left side of the picture? And Fumi on the right? On every Sunday, we are commuting to this cafe. The best thing for studying here is that we can access to the Internet freely at any Cafe. In Japan, I feel very incovenient to study outside like Cafe because I cannot serch the Web. In contrast, it is very convenient here to study at Cafe or libraries at the UW.

Today I reread Jack Snyder's article 'One World, Rival Theories.'
This article explains three international relations theories in the world. These theories exhibit each distinct characteristics. Please let me remind you and me about each characteristic and flaws. Thw author displays three international relations based on Stephen M. Walt's article 'One World, Many Theories' from Foreign Policy published in 1998. Stephen M. Walt sketched out three dominant theories: Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism. Briefly, according to Jack Snyder, realism is the school of international relations theory which believes that 'international affairs is a strrugle for power among self-interested states.' What strikes me is that his emphasis on the effectiveness of cruel pragmatism about power. He thinks that it produce a more peaceful world than other ways. In case of liberalism, it is the other school of international relations theory which expect that 'democracies will not attack each other and will regard each other's regimes as legitimate and nonthreatning.' However, it is not always true as you might think so. I forgat to write that realism also has the flaws. One more school of international relations theory is constructivism which believe that 'foreign policy is guided by ethical and legal standards.' In other words, it consider debates about ideas as the fundamental building blocks of internatioinal relations. It is because everything comes from thoughts and theories. However, constructivism also has flaws as same as other schools. It is important to know each frame of theories as a way to look at the tendency for the world politics. In addition, Jack Snyder addresses the pliability of these international relations theories. He introduces Condoleezza Rice's remark that 'the new Bush doctrine is an amalgam of pragmatic realism and Wilsonian liberal theory.' He demands the necessity of filling up the gap each theory is facing now.

San Juan Islands

2008-07-21T08:04:00.009+09:00

We spent our whole day in San Juan Islands on Saturday.
We went around a town, Friday Harbor, located in the island, ate lunch there, watched alpacas, observed some whales, and viewd
beatiful scenery. Mike, my friend in Seattle, took us to the Islands by car to Anacortes. And then, we left Anacortes to Friday Harbor by Ferry. Other major islands in San Juan County are Orcas Island, Lopez Island, and Shaw Island.

Except shopping mall, you can see the scenery of countryside there. Long street in the middle of prairie, meadow districts, alpacas(Look at the upper picture), the oceans, lots of flowers... I felt relaxed there.

As is written in a guidebook, the main purpose for people to go there is to see the whales right before your eyes. We also had expected so before we left from Seattle. And finally we ........... saw four whales moving slowly in front of us!! It was amazing!!
I sank myself into nature at that time. I highly recommend you for visiting San Juan Islands when you have chance to come to State of Washington.
I met a little girl there after I observed whales. I asked her if I can take a photo with her. And she said 'Sure.'(Look at the lower picture)

Misaki

My Classroom

2008-07-19T04:24:00.004+09:00

I am in Seattle!

2008-07-18T14:32:00.005+09:00

Hi, everybody! We got to Seattle at 9:30 a.m. on 17 July. Seattle 16 hours behind Tokyo.

After we got out of Tacoma-Seattle International Airport, we took Shuttle Express and got to our hotel.
And then, we visited Housing and Food Services located in the Schmitz Hall. There we found lots of problems about our housing. In my case, my room has not been assigned yet because I cancceld it once and did not complete deposit payment online. However, the woman in the office solved my problem, and I can get a room during b-term. It was a big relief!! Yuki and Yuri also had problems, but both of them managed to get their rooms, too. The picture shows the scene which they were strrugling for solving the problem. We are supposed to know our room number and roommate tomorrow.

In the evening we went to Odegaard Undergraduate Library and Suzzallo & Allen Library.
We had dinner at Thai restaurant. And we ate 'sticky rice pudding' that is my favourite dessert.
Before the dinner, we went to the bookstore and bought our textbboks or other stuffs for our study here.

I stop writing here. Thank you for reading my blog.
Misaki

At last!!

2008-07-17T00:01:00.002+09:00

Tomorrow we are departing for Seattle from Sendai!
I am very glad to welcome the day that four of us can go to the UW to take a course.
Everyone did a great effort to get 500 PBT TOEFL score. Yuri and Yuki spent their time for preparing for TOEFL over 5 months or moreover. Fumi also tried her best within a quite short time.
And finally, they achieved their goals!

By the way, we are landing at Seattle at about 9 a.m. on 17 July.

This is my third time to attend a course at the UW.
I try to report my daily activity in the class on my Blog and to join in classes actively.

Please wait for a while for my updating you.

I appreciate Araki-sensei, Lee-sensei, and Yuto for taking care of us and shareing their precious time for our presentation!
Thank you very very much!!

The Latest News

2008-07-15T23:32:00.003+09:00

The article, "First Guantanamo video released", has been reported from BBC.

It shows us the videotape filmed for the first time through an air duct at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. In the video 16-years-old man is interviewed by Canadian officials.

You can read more closery at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7507216.stm

Srebrenica massacre

2008-07-07T23:46:00.004+09:00

Srebrenica massacre, you just check it out !!

Sunni and Shia Muslim

2008-07-06T23:16:00.001+09:00

The diversion of Sunni and Shia dates back to the argument after prophet Muhammad dead in 632.
Sunna(followers of the custom of the caliphate) group appointed Abu Baker as the next Caliph after Muhammad's death. In contrary, Shia(followers of Ali) appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib who was Muhammad's a paternal cousin and son-in-low.
About 90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni and about 10% Shia.

Their disagreement is stil persistent today.
(http://www.islamfortoday.com/beliefs01.htm)

Three Types of Muslim Diversity

2008-07-05T23:11:00.004+09:00

In his article, he thinks that the generalization of Muslim is not possible. And he confirms that the scholar should be cautions when they talk about Muslims.
It is because Muslim diverse depending on the environment around them, the nations, and beliefs they have.

He introduces three examples of the diversity of Muslims.
The first example is the difference between Sunni and Shia.
The second one is the urban-rural difference.
The third one is the difference among nations.

Because of the several elements among Muslims to identify them, we cannot simply generize them.

My Presentation

2008-07-04T23:47:00.003+09:00

Tonight I gave a presentation on a Carl von Clausewitz's idea, 'War as an instrument of Policy.'
It was hard time for me to make his idea understood among the participants of the schlarship program and Dr. Araki Suguru.

What was the most confusing topic was an example of an expression of fencing in Clausewitz's work. He applys the expression of fencing to explain the relationship between war and politics.
I found it very interesting expression to understand what he analyzes about war.
If you want to read that part, please go to http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/VomKriege2/Bk8ch06.html#B

During my presentation Yuto, the senior and the last time participant of the scholarship program, gave me a question. He said to me that 'I cannot believe that war as an instrument of politics will bring states interests and assets what they want. In addition to his opinion, Yuri, Yuki, Humi told me their opinions and impressioins for my presentation. Dr.Araki stated that there is no way but war to make their opponents vanish and pass from view. However, no person or states should conduct wars as a way to seek their interests.
Wars can never be justified like atomic bombs.

Yahya Sadowski

2008-06-29T23:37:00.004+09:00

Chapter 5 named 'The State' is the part I am now stucking in my textbook. The introduction to this chapter says that 'The state is the key actor in international relations.'
Yahya Sadowski of American University of Beirut describes the diversity of Islam and the characteristic of political islam.

Let me introduce Yahya Sadowski briefly here. He is the associate professor of political studies at American University of Beirut. He got his Ph.D. at Univeristy of California in Los Angels in 1984.
He is teaching comparative politics of the Middle East, International Relations of the Middle East, Globalizatioin, US Foreign Policy toward the Middle East and so on.

I have just begun reading his article 'Political Islam: Asking The Wrong Questions?'
As for as I read, he emphasizes the diversity of Islam and the danger to simply regard Islam as a one unity based on the one principal.

'War as an Instrument of Policy'

2008-06-28T23:25:00.002+09:00

Today I was reading a part of Carl Von Clausewits' masterpiece, 'On War.'
In the book8 ,Plan of War, Chapter6 presents Clausewits' most famous argument that is about 'war is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse.'

He says in his book that people usually tend to think that War is derived from the disagreement of bargaining. However, War is a continuation of political intercourse because war is a part of politics, and just like he says, the instrument of policy.

Here I note that we really have to remember that war is not a single consequence at all. In addition, Clausewitz asserts that wars are representative of the interests of the whole community and manifestations of policy in a country.

Women's Perspective on World Politics

2008-06-27T23:37:00.003+09:00

It is interesting for me to see how women's perspectives on International Relations are claimed. For example, I am showing Valentine M. Moghadam who is a sociologist.
She published "Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks" in 2005. (http://www.iranian.com/Books/2005/September/Global/index.html)
In her book, she examines the correlation between gendered process and globalization.

Carl von Clausewitz

2008-06-26T23:30:00.003+09:00

Have you ever heard of his name? This was my first opportunity to know him, in spite of his prominent figure. He is a soldier, military historian and thinker who has had a great influence on strategist. What made him significant figure is the book he wrote, 'On War.'
According to the website for Carl von Clausewitz, it says that there are just two writers who dealt with war and the strategy for it. They are Thucydides and Carl von Clausewitz. Carl von Clausewitz analysis the theory of warfare and of strategy. And I found that his book is applied in business school to learn business strategy.
I cannot wait to read the book which has still been attracting a lot of people in different fields.

Two Editors of My Textbook

2008-06-25T23:30:00.005+09:00

I think it is pretty late to do, I have counted the number of people who are appeared in my textbook, 'Essential Readings in World Politics.' It is edited by Karen A. Mingst and Jack L. Snyder.

The total number is 51! Until now I have gained some pieces of information about 20 people in the textbook. Now let me introduce some of them here.
First, I am writing about the editors. Karen A. Mingst is a professor at Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. Her areas of specialization is International Cooperation, International Organization, Non-government Organizations, and International Law. She edited the first and second edition as well.
(http://www.uky.edu/PattersonSchool/faculty.htm)

Jack L. Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations in the political science department at Columbia University. (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/jls6-fac.html)
His articles concentrating on democratization and war, imperial overstretch, war crimes tribunals versus amnesties as strategies for preventing atrocities, international relations theory after September 11, and anarchy and culture can be seen in many journals such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and World Politics.

Immanuel Wallerstein

2008-06-24T23:54:00.003+09:00

Immanuel Wallerstein

is distinguished sociology professor at Yale University.
I add here the useful website to reference his previous articles.
In my textbook, the extract from his work 'Comparative Studies in Society and History' is included.

We are supported to learn his theory which the international system is a capitalist world system. In addition, we will learn his classification of three types of states: the core, the periphery, and the semi-periphery.

The Second Feature of Political Realism

2008-06-23T23:42:00.004+09:00

I am adding one more feature of political realism on my blog.

Hans Morgenthau describes political realism as the theory which knows moral principle. Hewe I found the correlation Thomas Hobbes' human nature and the idea Hans Morgenthau analyse. When I studied Thomas Hobbes, I found that he believes that human nature is self-centered and emotional, although that he believes that human beings has reason.
By the way, Hans Morgenthau shows us that political realism knows the importance of moral principle of political action. However he asserts that moral principles of political action cannot be applied to the international politics.

I suppose that the reason is every state has to survive in the world, and surviving in the conflictual world is the immediate goal for every state as Hans Morgenthau explain.

The First Feature of Political Realism

2008-06-22T22:46:00.005+09:00

I want to add another relavant knowledge on the basic feature of political realism.

Based on Hans Morgenthau's theory, political realism thinks that politics is conducted based on objective laws in each country. The word 'objective' is similar to the meaning of the word 'goal' or 'aim.' Thus, objective law is the law established to acheive aims or to follow policy in each country. Also he explains that each country's objective law is established based on their conception of humasn nature. Human nature is humasn beings' hypothetical condition in absence of government or rulers. Because the conception of humasn nature varys depending on societies, laws are different in each society in the world.

Worth Reading!!

2008-06-21T22:40:00.002+09:00

Around noon Dr.Suguru Araki stopped by at the Cross Cultual Education Center in which we are staying for stdying, eating, chatting, and listeing to our 老師. By the way, when Dr.Araki came in the office, he told me very important points you cannot miss with regard to reading textbooks.
Now I am reading my textbook 'Essential Readings in World Politics' which is the compilation of many political theorists' essays or documents.
What I learned from Dr.Araki is:
① Read throgh body texts in the textbook and know the main points of them
② Scan notes and references on the back page of body paragraphs to advance your research.
That is much more important to do than ①.
If you are planning to go to a graduate school, it is the essential ability to deepen your knowledge and write your thesis in the future.
This is what Dr.Araki insisted. Although I am now in Step1, reading the main body in the textbook, I hope I can take one step forward for strengthening myself.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

2008-06-17T23:08:00.002+09:00

While I was serching the Web for John Mearsheimer, I found his notorious book, 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.' The work was also written by stephen walt . First I tried to see who John Mearsheimer is on Google Image Search, which resulted in knowing the book. Although I have not known exactly the contents of the book, I was attracted by the book. It is because I want to know the reason of strong tie between the U.S and Israel. The book hints at understanding the strong tie between them. The book was published on August 27 in 2007.

Manifest Destiny - America's policy

2008-06-16T23:46:00.003+09:00

'Manifest Destiny' is the significant term to understand America's diplomacy. The meaning of the term is that the America shouhld expand their territory and transmit their culture, ideas, and systems to uncivilized lands. The term represents America's character in politics. Thus, based on this idea the America think that expansion is obvious(manifest) and certain(destiny). 'Manifest Destiny' was used to justify America's expansion from the East to the West in the North American continent.

This idea is very important and key term to view even today's America's politics.

J. Ann Tickner - Feminism perspective

2008-06-15T21:01:00.002+09:00

Today I want to introduce a scholar, J. Ann Ticker. I found it interesting that she is a feminist international relations theorist. For example, she criticizes Hans Morgenthau because he is talking about just men’s character in politics. J. Ann Ticker’s interest in the field of International Relations is national security. Therefore, she analyzes the lack of women’s capability with respect to national security.

Alexander Wendt

2008-06-14T10:12:00.001+09:00

Now I am reading an article in my textbook. The article ‘Anarchy is what states make of it’ was written by Profesor Alexander Wendt in the Ohio State University. He published it in International Organization in 1992. He is now recognized as a profound and influential scholar in International Relations. It is because he established Constructivism, one of International Relations Theory. You can see the influential scholar in International Relations in the list below. The list is taken from ‘Teaching and Research Project’ College of William and Mary, Williamsburg. August 2005.

With regard to his article, he proposed the inquiry about anarchy in international politics in it.

(22) Please list the four scholars who have had the greatest impact on the field of international relations over the past 20 years. N=752

Rank	Names	Responses	Percent
1	Robert Keohane	422	56
2	Kenneth Waltz	311	41
3	Alexander Wendt	248	33
4	Samuel Huntington	155	21
5	John Mearsheimer	138	18
6	Joseph Nye	125	17
7	Robert Jervis	113	15
8	Bruce Bueno de Mesquita	109	14
9	Bruce Russett	83	11
10	Robert Gilpin	78	10
11	Peter Katzenstein	69	9
12	Stephen Krasner	68	9
13	James Rosenau	60	8
14	John Ruggie	49	7
15	Michael Doyle	42	6
16	James Fearon	41	5
17	Immanuel Wallerstein	31	4
18	Robert Cox	28	4
19	Hans Morgenthau	27	4
20	Francis Fukuyama	26	3
21	J. David Singer	21	3
22	Stephen Walt	19	3
23	Jack Snyder	17	2
23	Robert Axelrod	17	2
23	Stanley Hoffmann	17	2

British Inconsistent Promise

2008-06-12T22:41:00.003+09:00

The MacMahon-Hussein Correspondence and Balfour Declaration of 1917 are the inconsistent promise British made aiming at settling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is said to be a seed of the long-lasting conflict in Palestinian area.

The MacMahon-Hussein Correspondence is the letters exchanged between Husayn Bin Ali and Henry MacMahon, British High Commissioner in Egypt. This correspondence ensured the Arab independence from Ottoman empire and the right to live in Palestinian area.
In contrast, Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised Palestinian area to Jews. The declaration was addressed by Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour.

These two are now remembered as a trigger events for the never-ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Guyana - The report of HIV

2008-06-11T22:49:00.004+09:00

In the morning I watched a TV program which was focusing on the problem of HIV in Guyana. I was amazed at witnessing the situation how HIV is infected among people there. The main industories are forestory and gold mining in Guyana. However, people cannot earn enough money to live their lives just by engaging in forestory. It is because the government announced that it aims at protecting forest as much as possible under the influence of global warming. Thus, whether you work in a gold mine or not descides your life in the future.

Because of the reason, most men work in a gold mine and stay there leaving their family in the towns. In the gold mine, there is also a small town in which gold miner can drink alcohol at night.
After the sun goes down, some young women approach the small town to have a sexual relationship with the men. Above all, there are tourists to buy gold jewelry. So, lots of people gather at one place, and the risk of being infected becomes higher and higher.

The sad thing is that they cannot change their job because there is little chances to be hired. For feeding their family, it is the best way to work in a gold mine.
Poverty is not just a motter of lacking of money. Poverty brings other serious issues which directly threaten people's lives

Islael and Palestina

2008-06-10T00:05:00.001+09:00

Today I watched 'MUNICH', movie directed by Steven Spielberg.
It depicted Munich Massacre occured during summer Olympics in Munich in 1972. 11 Israeli members were killed by Black September, Palestinian members of the fedayeen.

Because I did not know the background of Israel-Palestina conflict, I did not enjoy fully watching the DVD. Therefore, I want to understand the conflict, and I am writing down what I have found.
Until the 2oth centry, the land of Israel was occupied by Ottoman Empire.
And gradually, Jews livining mostly in Europ came back to their homeland. The first wave of Jews coming homeland is named as the First Aliyah began in 1881. The wave continues to the Second, Third, Forth, and Fifth Aliyah. When Jews came back to their land, the conflict between Jews and Arabs became serious and never-ending story.

The cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict known today is directed not only at religious matter but also British government and the UN which devided the land for Israeli and Palestinian Arab. After Ottoman Empire gave up the land of Israel, British made it its territory and ruled for 25 years. When British realized the eternal problem rooted in the region, it withdrew from Palestine.

Next time I will focus on the way of deviding the region by the UN Partitian and the Balfour Decralation.

American Hegemony?

2008-06-08T02:37:00.003+09:00

As I noted the last time, every nations are tend to pursue power for their preservations in the glove. Then, it seems obvious that the most successful country having great power in the planet is the United States. What characterizes the US as the powerful country is military power.
According to John Mearsheimer,however, the US is not a hegemon because the US does not dominate all the other states in the system. Although no countries can acheive global hegemons, he tells us that countries can acheive regional hegemons.

I suggest that he confirms his idea which all country feel fear for the possibility to be attacked and destroyed by others based on the above 'hegemony theory.

John Mearsheimer-Offensive Realism

2008-06-06T21:36:00.006+09:00

John Mearsheimer is well-known international relations theorist and a professor of political science at the Univeristy of Chicago. The excerpted version of his prominent book, 'The Tragedy of Great Power Politics' is included in my textbook. Thus, I am writing down his introduction here.

By reading a part of his book, I knew his 'offensive realism.' It is the framework how countries act in the international politics.
He raises five assumptions on this.

The first assumption is that in the international politics there is no 'goverment over goverment.' He call the situation anarchic. Because there is no obligatioin to follow, and thus, there is no existance to trust in, states pursue power.
The second assumption is that states are potentially dangerous each other no matter they have much more weapons than others or not. The impressive and interesting sentence for me is 'After all, for every neck, there are two hands to choke it.' This really explains how much nations have to be careful and watch out what other nations are trying to do.
The thrid assumption is that states have no idea about other states' intentions. It is because intentions are impossible to divine with 100 percent certainty and can change quickly in his words.
The forth assumptioin is that the ultimate aim of states is to survive. Power comes along with seculity. Therefore, states pursue power to survive in the world.
The fifth assumption is that states are rational factors.

With such analysis, he proposes the reasons why states tend to pursue power.

Political Power

2008-06-05T23:52:00.003+09:00

Hans Morgenthau also writes about the notion of 'power' in his book. 'Power' in his definition does not mean physical attack, but influence to control other countries through orders, threats, persuasion, the authority, or charisma of a man or of an office.

He adds that every nation always want to gain power for freedom, security, and prosperity no matter what their objectives are. Why are countries so stick with getting power over other countries?

Principle of Political Realism

2008-06-04T22:19:00.002+09:00

As I wrote down before, realism is one of schools of international relations.
By reading Hans Morgenthau's thesis, I took a hint of the core idea of realism.
The key word for realism is 'reason.' Hargenthau explains in his book that realism believes 'truth' which is truly objective and rational through the filter of evidence and reason. It does not include prejudice and wishful thinking which were separated from the facts. This is called 'opinion' according to Hargenthau. Realism examines political acts in the past imagining why politicians acted in this way or in that way. And from the knowledge derived from that process, realism can foresee what will happen in the future.

Hans Morgenthau

2008-06-03T23:08:00.003+09:00

Before introducing Francis Fukuyama's thesis to you, I want to note Hans Morgenthau who is remembered now as a pioneer of international relations theory. My textbook includes his great work 'Politics among Nations.' The main concern in the book is the notion of power.
Also, I found that he was born in Germany and was affected by Nazis for forming Morgenthau's political theory. He sees politics objectively and scientifically. And he does not like think politics emotionally and subjectively. When I study theories, I enjoy learning how the theories are formed by each person based on their background.

Francis Fukuyama, 'The End of History?'

2008-06-02T23:46:00.003+09:00

Now I am struggling with Francis Fukuyama's thesis, 'The End of History?'.
His thesis strongly supports for liberal democracy above any other political thories.
He argues in its thesis that history is the conflict among ideas.
I will report on more detailed contents about the thesis next time.

TICAD Ⅳ

2008-06-01T23:24:00.006+09:00

Do you know anything about a event which happened in Yokohama city, Japan, from May 28 to 30?
More than 40 people from each african country assembled.

'TICAD Ⅳ' was held for 3 days in Japan. What does TICAD stand for?
TICAD means 'Tokyo International Conference on African Development(アフリカ開発会議).'
The first conference began in 1993 in Tokyo. The next one was held in 1998 in Tokyo. The third one was held in 2003. And the forth one was held this year in Yokohama city in Kanagawa prefecture.

Today I read the article related with the fourth conference. It raises question about the conference phrase 'Towards a Vibrant Africa.' What does this mean to the TICAD participants?
Does it just mean greater economic growth for the African countries?
The article gives us information that some observers and NGOs advocated that much more essential points for the stable growth in Africa were not discussed in TICAD.
The essential points are 'democratization' and 'redistribution of wealth.' The article also introduces Minoru Obayashi(a learder of TNet)'s interview. He said that 'Japan should send a clear message calling for democratization because it has no history of colonial rule in Africa, unlike some Europian countries.' I argue for his comment about Japan's democracy. I am not sure Japanese copied Europian democracy in completely the same way. Thus, I think that Japan's perception of democracy is different in some way. Also, I am not sure democracy have power to make all of countries and people happier and their lives safer and richer.
I want to pursue for this question through the study of international relations.

[Sources]
THE JAPAN TIMES Sunday, June, 1, 2008 「Making a continent 'vibrant'」
TICAD Ⅳ online brochure http://www.undp.or.jp/ticad/pdf/ticad_iv_j.pdf

Isolated tribe in Brazil

2008-05-31T00:12:00.004+09:00

One of most popular world news is that isolated tribe was spotted in Brazil according to BBC news.
The story and its pictures really struck me.
On one hand, some people analyze international relations. On the other hand, some people have never contacted any other ethnic groups.
I want to know how international relations theory can comprehend international relations in the world.

Common heritage of mankind

2008-05-29T23:09:00.003+09:00

As you know, the seas cover 70% of the surface of the earth. The international issue on the seas is that how much each nation can be allowed to make them own territory. Therefore, it is the source of conflicts in all over the world. Can you believe people are able to distribute the seas among nations equally? I hardly believe the fact! However, human beings have history that they had tried to decide which seas go to which countries.

Arvid Pardo is known as 'father of the low of the sea conference.' Also, he is famous Maltese diplomat who proposed the idea of 'common heritage of mankind' in the seas.

Although human beings are self-interested and do cruel fights seeking for their benefits, they are able to avoid fights thanks to those who work for mutual interests and peaceful world.

The Fourteen Points

2008-05-28T23:40:00.002+09:00

The Fourteen Points is the speech that the 48th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, addressed at a joint session of the United States congress on January 8, 1918.
His speech is made up of his idealistic perspective for establishing the world in which peace, justice, and fair dealing are assured.

I summarize the fourteen points Wilson delivered.
1. Open diplomacy
There should be no closed and secret diplomacy among nations. Diplomacy need to be
open and frankly proceeded.

2. Freedom of the seas
There should freedom of navigation on the seas outside territorial waters.

3. Removal of economic barriers
The world should establish an equality of trade conditions.

4. Reduction of armaments
Weapons or such kind of military things need to be reduces to the lowest points.

5. Adjustment of colonial claims
All colonial opinions should be regarded as the same value as governing nations.

Chapter2: History

2008-05-27T22:29:00.004+09:00

My textbook contains Woodrow Wilson 'The Fourteen Points', George F. Kennan 'X', Francis Fukuyama 'The End of History?', and George W. Bush 'The National Security Strategy of The United States of America' in chapter2 History.

First, let me write about Woodrow Wilson's speech 'The Fourteen points.'
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, delivered the fourteen points speech in 1918. This speech tells us Wilson's view of world politics in the future based on idealism. He hoped the World War Ⅰwould come to an end by proclaiming the speech.

Second, George F. Kennan's 'X' is the article which appeared in 1947 Foreign Affairs. Soon after the article was published, it became the U.S foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. George F. Kennan was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist, and historian. He is well-known as a father of containment. The article 'X' was a historical document as to the Cold War.

Mellian Dialogue - Realism vs. Liberalism

2008-05-26T22:46:00.003+09:00

Sorry for the short introduction to core ideas of international relations on the previous blog...
Today I want to answer the question Humi asked me at our presentation meeting one week ago.

Humi asked a question on realism and liberalism. It was 'Were there any occasion that realim and libelarism crushed each other before?'
I found the answer for her question.
Yes, there was a historic crush between two theories back in the Ancient Greece.
Thucydides recorded its event in his masterpiece, 'History of the Peloponnesian War.'
There is BookⅤ:Melian Dialogue in the book. Dialogue between Melos and Athenian shows us a classic example of the clash of liberal and realist ideas.

In the first place, Peloponnesian War occured because Delian League led by Athne and Peloponessian League feared the other's hegemony in the Ancient Greece and tried to enhance their power over other city-states. As a result, Peloponessian League won against Delian League.
However, there were some city-states which remained neutural in the struggle between Sparta and Athnes. One of its city-states is Melos. It had been a neutral city-state for 700 years. Suddenly the Athenian sent envoys to Melos for the pourpose of negotiating Melos' surrender.
For Melos, it cannot accept Athenian's offer because Melos insisted that the idea of neutrality and independence should be respected. Also, Melos asserted that no nations have a right to attack others.
Athene that has the idea of realism told to Melos, 'The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they want.' This suggests Athene was in the side of realism. Athne wanted Melos to become its colony not just because Athene hoped to expand its territory but also Athene wanted to improve its image and seculity by doing that.

Now we can see that the crush between realism and liberalism already happened long long ago.

Core ideas about international relations

2008-05-24T22:46:00.003+09:00

Today I spent the early evening reading a textbook for my course at the UW.
The title of the book is 'Essential Readings in World Politics' edited by Karen A. Mingst and Jack L. Snyder. Today I read the first chapter of the book which introduces core ideas about international relations. The first chapter includes Thucydides 'Melian Dialogue', Immanuel Kant 'To Perpetual Peace', and V.I.Lenin 'From Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism.'

Nazi Party - Realism

2008-05-23T22:37:00.004+09:00

Today I am introducing you to a good example of the representative of realism.

It is Nazi Party, a political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945. Adolf Hitler is notorious for his dictatorship in its party. What he did during his administration applies to the theory of realism.
First, he extended the territory of German to Poland, Czech Republic, and the Soviet Union for providing the surplus population in Germany with the enough space to live.
Second, he was a extreme racist on Jewish, homosexuality, and disabled people because Hitler believed that he should segregate such kind of people in order to let noble German thrive for eternity. He also took it for granted that superior nations can usurp other countries' lands or natural resources.

The core belief of realism is that self-interested states compete for power and security. Nazi party and Adolf Hitler is the very organization and people that survived under the principle of realism.

NPT?

2008-05-16T21:13:00.007+09:00

Do you know what NPT stands for? And what does it mean?
Today I read the first chapter of '国際機構の政治学.'
It is because a teacher in a political class assigned reading it and writing book review by June 10.
I have to hurry up -_-;

By the way, NPT stands for 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.'
Although I had not paid much attention to NPT or IAEA, I think I need to understand them or nuclear weapons proliferation problems.　
NPT is a treaty to prevent the use of nuclear weapons or materials. Now 190 parties have joined the Treaty according to United Nations web page.(http://disarmament.un.org/wmd/npt/index.html)
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China have declared that they have nuclear weapons. In contrary, four countries such as India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea do not sign in.
What I have learned by reading the book is that nuclear weapons are very effective to maintain international relations although it is a massively destructive weapons in the world. Thanks to its terrifying destructive power, each country are afraind of conducting nuclear attack. In short, some nations have nuclear weapons to protect themselves and ro gain power in international community. That is why nuclear problem are included in in international relations.

Liberalism

2008-05-13T20:37:00.004+09:00

Next international relations theory I want to write down here is liberalism.
It analyzes world politics in the opposite way to realism. Although realism views the world pessimistically, liberalism does it optimistically. The essential concept of liberalism is that it regards each nation as the existence which does not fight with other nations, and thus which seeks for establishing a community for the cause of peace. This concept is the representative of Hugo Grotius' theory. He laid the foundations for international law. That is why Glotius is called 'Father of international law.'

I will add much information later^^

Political Realism

2008-05-12T09:59:00.003+09:00

According to the class description on the website of the UW, it says that the students should know the basis of international relations. This is the reason why I am writing one of international relations theories, political realism, on today's blog.

Political realism is one of international relations theories, and its origin dates back to Thucydides' 'History of the Peloponnesian War' followed by Niccolo Machiavelli's 'The Price' and Tomas Hobbes' 'Leviathan.' Based on the theory of realism, states are to seek for self-interest, military and economic power, and security. In other words, political realists consider nations' object to have a relationship with other nations as maximizing their interests and power.

John Locke and Rousseau

2007-08-03T16:09:00.000+09:00

July 30 - August 1

Hello! How are you doing? I hope you are having a good summer vacation now.

This week, I leared John Locke and Rousseau in the classes. Let me show you what I studied about them.

First of all, I'm going to describe "the Labor Theory of Value" Locke proposed. It's the theory accounting that only mixing human labor with natural things has the value. In other words, he says that world is mostly valueless without expense of human labor. He also remakes "the State of Nature." We learn "the State of Nature" and how each pilosopher defines it. For paper, we are going to write about the difference between Hobbes and Locke comparing their definitions of the term. So, Locke says that the State of Nature is a state of perfect freedom and equality. And no one is allowed to harm another health, liberty, or possessions. There is no relation between superior and inferior. Man has to preserve himself there. He concludes that "men living together according to reason without natural authority on earth, without government that will judge between rights claims" is proper the State of Nature.

On Wednesday, we had a lecture on Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among men.” In this book, he seeks for what is the origin of inequality among men. He accounts that there are two kinds of inequality. One is natural or physical inequality. Another is called moral or political equality. He believes that there is no inequality in his State of Nature. Then, how and when it emerged? He shows that inequality appeared because of civilization. The word "civilization" itself is appeared to be good, but it involves bad aspects. In this sense, Rousseau says that inequality emerged when people started to have their own properties.

*I went to the Pike Place Market and took pictures there. This is one of the famous sightseeing spots in Seattle. You can get information at http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/frameset.asp?flash=true

Thomas Hobbes

2007-07-28T23:50:00.000+09:00

July 26 - July 27

We studied Thomas Hobbes and his idea for two days this week. In class, we usually listen to the lecture from 9:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. And we take 10 minutes break. After that, sometimes we make 3 or 4 groups and talk about the reading quiz which the instructor gives us. For the other days, we continue to listen to the lecture. He uses projection equipment, OHP, to show his lecture note to the students. So, we are feeling frustration to write down his memo on our notebooks as fast as possible. There are lots of things to copy. It is really hard to listen his talking carefully and writing down at the same time though it is good exercise to improve my English skill.

Let’s go back to the topic about Hobbes.
His interest is Realism which observes what we are, not what we ought to be. Like Plato, he also considered how politics ought to be understood, organized, or altered. But the big difference between two of them is whether focusing on an ideal state or focusing the real state. The latter is Hobbes’ view. The key word we have to keep in mind all the time when we read his books is “fear.” Fear lies in his every single concept because his emotion was filled with fear every time because of English Civil War (1642-1649).

Have you ever heard of following phrase? “Every man, against every man.” His striking concept is that people will inevitably be in a state of war unless we live in under government. In other words, he says that we will kill each other if there is no government.

As well as him, the philosophers whom we will deal with during the course argue how people would behave in absence of government. For Hobbes, he says that we are allowed to fight one another for self-preservation. There exists a war because of three of conflict among man. First one is competition for property, stuff, and gain. Second one is diffidence which comes from fear for our conservation. Third one is glory which comes from concern for reputation.
This, he says citizens should give up all of their rights to one person called sovereign. To do so, he says, we can stay alive and live a peaceful life.

By the way, I found that there is a man who came from Guam, and one man from Filliping, and one woman from Ethiopia. As you know now, this is one of the differences between a school in the US and that of Japan. And one more big difference is that some students speak up their mind or questions in class. They never hesitate to expose their thinking or questions. The instructor seems to be a little puzzled their relentless questions.

*The picture on the left side:I took this picture in the HUB where most students have a lunch. You can eat pizza, salad,chinese food, and hot dogs or hamburgers at Subway.

*The picture on the right side: You can see Mount Rainer from the University on a sunny day.　

Plato

2007-07-26T12:48:00.000+09:00

July 23 - July 25

Hi, everyone! How are you doing?
Today, I would like to tell you what I learned in the classes.
During last three days, we covered the Republic written Plato.
I have found lots of new things from the lecture.

First of all, we studied background of Socrates and Plato.
Socrates is a teacher of Plato and a first philosopher to focus on questions of ordinary living.
And he is believed to go barefoot all year around and could stay up for days in conversation and contemplation. Moreover, it is interesting to know that he spent most of his time in the public market to talk to people there. The characteristic of the book is dialogue. The use of dialogue tell us about philosophy is a part of daily life in Athens. Such kind of conversation was held not just in academic classrooms but in everywhere. Thus, everyone in the city could meet Socrates and talk with him even in a market. By the way, he was considered to be a social gadfly. Gadfly means someone who annoys other people by criticizing them. In contrast, Plato who wrote the Republic came from two prominent, politically-oriented Athenian families in Periclean era. In the Republic, he recorded ideas and life of Socrates for posterity. And he thought that the death of Socrates was am absurd and 'unjust' tragedy. That is why he stuck to 'justice' throughout the book.

The book overview is that Socrates seeks ideal society to find out the answer for his question, "What is the best way to live?" Above all, the question "how the state can be reorganized to realize the best qualities in human beings" becomes the theme of his central work in the book. In order to pursuit for his question, he creates the ideal state and try to discover the answer in it. Also, he thinks that there is a profound connection between the nature of society and the nature of individuals who populate that society. From his view, in the end, good society is constructed from good citizens.

First of all, I will try to show you how an ideal society is made up. The aim of an ideal society is not to exclusive happiness of any one class of citizens. Before building an ideal society, he states that just people live better than unjust person. Therefore, he also accounts that just society is the perfect one to live for. Then, what is justice or injustice? How and where are they generated? Socrates and the audience argue these topics as well. By the way, one of the elements for a good society is each citizen doing their own occupations fitted to their own innate faculties. For example, if your innate capacity is fitted farmer, you should be a farmer. In contrast, if your innate nature is fitted a ruler, you should be definitely a ruler. However, who can judge who is fitted what job? This question was raised by one student in the class. And does everyone agree with this idea? In the book, Socrates introduces the audience to the story which is expected to persuade citizens just to do their own jobs. The story is called "Myth of the Metals." Let me show you this story because I got interested in this allegory. Certain people were literally born from the soil, partly from Hesiod's account of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze races. The rulers, the soldiers and the whole community were down inside the earth. Then, they were sent up to this world. Because they were born from the same soil, they all are brothers. But the god mixed gold into the person who is fit to rule. This person, therefore, has the most precious quality. Next, He put silver into the soldiers, and iron and brass in the farmers and craftsmen. And now, since they came from one stock, their children are supposed to be the same as their parents. However, this story tells us sometimes a golden parent may have a silver child or a silver parent may have a golden one, and so on with regard to the other combinations. Even if an iron and brass child’s parents are gold, he or she ought to be a ruler or auxiliary. Such is a story. This story is said to be a noble lie in a class. Anyhow, Socrates proposes using this story to convince them not try to become out of their natural ability. To do this, he thinks that an ideal society can be constructed. One student related this story to an aptitude test. I think it is interesting to tie up the story with the modern issue. Although Hesiod's story show you one can become a ruler or a farmer based on his or her innate capability, it ignore his or her hope what he or she want to be.

Socrates suggested that a philosopher or a ruler who gained philosophical idea should govern a society to construct a good . And he adds that a ruler should be well educated and nurtured from his childhood.

I found it interesting to know that Socrates or Plato's ideas are regarded as a radical way of thinking nowadays.

*The picture on the left side:This building is 'The University Book Store.' The UW students buy their textbooks there. Also, there are other books, stationeries, and UW goods such as T-shirt and cups.
*The picture on the right side:This is a bus called Metro. Especially, the UW students can ride free on the buses. When you get on a bus, you have to show U-PASS sticker which is attached to the back of your Husky Card(student ID card). It is very convenient to go anywhere you want to if you take a course here.

Thank you !!

2007-07-26T12:20:00.000+09:00

Thank you very much for your wonderful gift on my birthday.
I have never dreamed that I could come to Seattle again, and I would become 20 years old here.
Also, I have never dreamed that I would be celeblated by all of you on the web.
I am so pleased with your surprising gift, cool music and amazing Ichiro.
Again, I want to express my gratitude to Yuri, Ayumi, Mayu, Tae, Yumi, and suguru!!
I love you!

Misaki

On the first day of class

2007-07-21T15:06:00.001+09:00

On July 19, b-term started!
My course begins at 9:40 and ends at 11:50. It is so long that we take a break for 10 minutes at about 11:00. 21 students are enrolled at this point, but there were about 15 students there.
The ration between men and wemen is half. The instructer is a graduate student. He seems to be around 27 or 28 years old. To my surprise, he speaks Japanese!! It's because he has lived in Japan for 3 years as a ALT. In addition, there is a Japanese girl in the same class. So, he spoke to us when she and I was talking each other in Japanese. It really surprised me.

By the way, we got the syllabus of the course. And we looked over it on the first class.
On the first page, 'Course Description and Objectives' are illustrated. It says, for example, "This course is a survey introduction to some major texts in (primarily Western) political theory from the ancient to the modern period. No prior experience is required, although an interest in politics and curiosity about political idea is highly recommended." Survey introduction means that we will pick up some good sense in books. It doesn't mean we will cover all pat of books.

So, texts and materials we will read are:
Plato, The Republic
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Two Treaties of Government
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Burke, Reflection on the Revolution in France
Marx, Communist Manifesto
Mill, On Liberty
Ghandi, Selected Political Writings
Barber, Jihad v. McWord.
The coming week, we are going to study Plato and Hobbes.

According to the syllabus, this course is also writing intensive and is composed of one major assigment, a weekly analytic journal, short in-class essays/quizzes/group presentations, participation, and a final exam. First paper is due August 13. Paper is going to be 5 page paper.
On each Morning, we have to hand in an alalytic journal. It is going to be 1 page long. This will cover the material for that week. The instructer told us that journal is for making a habit of questioning. In this course, it is the most important thing to think what I think about some philosopher's statements. Realted to this, the instructer said that do not dismiss while we are reading the books. Instead, encourage disagreed opinion if you disagrees with the opinion in the book. Today, July 20, we were given the subject of the first journal.
Let me show you the content. "Imagine that you have boarded a bus and have just settled in for a long journey down the West Cast from rainy seattle to san Diego. Prior to departure an old man in a toga which is a long loose piece of clothing worn by people in ancient Rome sits next to you. He introduces himself as a Socrates and starts to ask you questions." Considering this situation, we have to imagine what he asks me about. As he does this, how do I feel about sitting next to him for the next 36 hours? And why do I feel this way?
For writing up this journal, we need to read the assigned part of the Repblic in advance. I will show you my answer after I finished writing it.

Misaki

Victorian Era

2007-07-18T03:53:00.000+09:00

Through reading some books written by John Stuart Mill, I realized that I need to know the British history first. Some of philosophers we will take up in the course were British and Britain had a great influence on a lot of countries nowadays. Thus, learning British history will help you know most of history in other countries. If you don't know any of them, you will be lost definitely. However, I'm lost now at this point. So, I need the knowledge at any rate.

John Stuart Mill lived from 1806 to 1873. On 25 March in 1807, Britain abolished the slave trade. It ended more than 200 years of slave trading. The Abolition of Slavery Act, passed in 1833, freed all slaves in the British empire and provided for compensation for their owners. Above all, I want to show you Victoria era because Mill lived in this era. Victorian Britain starts in 1837 and ends in 1901. It starts when Victoria comes to the throne after the death of William IV. She became queen at the age of 18 after the death of her uncle, William IV. She reigned for more than 60 years, longer than any other British monarch. Her reign was a period of significant social, economic and technological change, which saw the expansion of Britain's industrial power and of the British empire. However there were riots over the right to vote and the repeal of the Corn Laws, which had been established to protect British agriculture during the Napoleonic Wars in the early part of the 19th century. Moreover, the country was connected by an expansive network of railway lines in this era. So, small, previously isolated communities were exposed and entire economies shifted as cities became more and more accessible.
There is much more things to study.

*The building in the picture is the Smith Hall in which my classroom is located.

Locker and Materialism

2007-07-17T04:24:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone. How are you doing? I hope you succeed in your exams. Today, I rented a locker at Husky Union Building (HUB). Let me tell you about the HUB in the beginning. According to the website (http://depts.washington.edu/sauf/hub/), “HUB brings together the campus community at the University of Washington. It is a place to gather with friends, watch a movie, study, get involved with a student organization, learn a new skill, grab something to eat, or just relax. The HUB offers Wifi access throughout the building in the meeting rooms and common areas.” As you can see now, we usually have lunch there and study on second floor thanks to the access to the Internet. The HUB Lockers are located on the Basement level of the HUB next to the HUB Games Area. I rented one smaller locker for $10 for entire summer quarter, b-term. There is larger one close to smaller one. If you want to rent a locker, you can go to the HUB information desk first. And you can ask the staff there to rent smaller or lager locker. However, you have to buy a key for your locker at the book store before using it. Renting a locker will be helpful to you.

Next, I'm going to tell you materialism. Through studying Hobbes, I noticed there is the other key term for me to understand. It is materialism. In philosophy, it is the view that the world is entirely composed of matter. Philosophers now tend to prefer the term physicalism. Materialism in this philosophical sense emerges in the modern period in Hobbes's Leviathan.

State of Nature

2007-07-16T08:06:00.000+09:00

Hello, everyone. Five days have passed since I've arrived at Seattle. Sunshine is so strong that we feel very hot here.
Now, I'm at Asian Library where thousands of hundreds of Asian books are stored. There are, of course, Japanese books in the library. This library is the most comfortable for me to stay for long time when I study thanks to the atmosphere.

Today, I want to tell you about "State of Nature." (自然状態 in Japanese) It is a term in political philosophy. Some philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau argued this. State of nature is a condition without government. Thus, to consider this condition will help us thinking of the reason why government exists and why it is needed for human beings. This term was first suggested by Hobbes in his book, Leviathan. I think some of you know following phrase, "war of every man against every man." (万人の万人に対する闘争 in Japanese) That is, Hobbes believed that human beings without a government would behave "badly" towards one another because he also believed that human beings is allow to do anything to preserve their own liberty or safety. I think he stated a government is needed for basic security which brings comfortable, sociable, civilized life.

In addition, he assumed each people have a right to preserve their own lives. This right is defined by him as "the right of Nature." (自然権 in Japanese) I suppose we will deal with this topic in the course in order to discuss the need of a government.

[Description of a picture]
ABOVE:This is the Asian library.You can borrow book at the front counter in the picture.

BELOW:This is a picture of Suzzallo & Allen Libraries. It opens from 8:00 to 22:00 through Monday to Thursday.

Hello from Seattle

2007-07-13T12:34:00.000+09:00

Hi. How are you doing? I'm in Seattle now and writing blog at the cafe called ZOKA CAFE sitting with Lee-sensei at the same table. We are doing OK.

We, Lee-sensei, Yuto and me, left from Sendai at about 9:00 a.m. for Tokyo. And we arrived at Tokyo station at about 11:30. Then, we waited for thirty minutes to get on Narita Express which took us to the Narita airport. It took for about thirty minutes to the airport.

There, our baggages were inspected if we had a illigal things in a suitcase by the staff at the airport. To my surprise, I was asked to stop for checking my suitcase because I was looked weird! And a elderly man started to open it and searched if there were any dangerous things to bring to the airplane. I could not believe my eyes because I had no such things in my suitcase. And there were absolutely no such things in it. The staff found out it after five minutes.

After that, we could get our "boarding pass" from the machine and handed our suitcase to the staff. We should hand a suitcase unlocked. For getting boarding pass, we had to simply hold our passports over a scanner. And then, we could get "boarding pass" from the machine. It was very easy to use. Because the elderly woman behind us, however, did not know how to use it, Yuto showed her how to get "boarding pass." After that, we changed money from yen to dollor at Mizuho Ginko.

By the way, our airplane was Northwest Airlines. My seat was "31-D". Lee-sensei and Yuto sat far away from me. Chinese man was sitting to my right side. And Korean man was sitting to the left side. I could know where they came from because Chinese man was talking Chinese with his wife and Korean man was reaing the book written in Korean and was speaking to the air-hostess he is Korean. It's annoying that the Chinese reclined on my right side of shoulder when he was sleeping. I just had been waiting the timing when he changed his sleeping position.
It took nine and half hours to get to San Feancisco. It was little sad that I could not see the view of a city in San Francisco from the airplane because I sat in the middle seat. At the San Francisco airport, we spent our time waiting to get on the Alaska airplane. We did not go out of the airport. We had a cup of coffee, good tasted, there. Yuto fell asleep onto the chair while reading the book. Lee-sensei and I were talking about the woman behind us. Finally, the Alaska airplane took off at 2:00 p.m.

Alaska airplane is a little smaller than that of Northwest. And three seats are placed on right and left side. I had a cup of orange juice in the plane. Since I could sit close to a window, I enjoyed seeing the view above the city of Seattle. Actually, I was sleeping almost one and half hours on the plane.

We arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International airport at around 3:30 p.m. While we were waiting for taking back our baggages, A father whose son was Yuto's roommate last summer came to pick him up. As for Lee-sensei and I, Lee-sensei's friend, Charlas, came to pick us up and gave us a ride to his house. So now, we are staying at his house which is close to Green Lake. (http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/greenlak.htm This website is sbout Green Lake)
The room is very comfortable to live and sleep. I appreciate him offering his room.

However, we are looking for a house we can stay at. Though I will leave for the dorm on 18 July, Lee-sensei will live a house with the other person after I move to the dorm. She is going to share a house with two or four people they are really new to her. I heared that it is common here to share one house with four or five men or women to live for paying law price. I hope we will be living on a new house tomorrow.

Thank you FUJIYAMA members writing me a message card and some of you who sent me an email before I left for Seattle!!

Misaki

On liberty

2007-07-08T22:42:00.000+09:00

John Stuart Mill is a British Philosopher. He argues "liberty".

His famous argument is that harm principle. The harm principle holds that each individual has the right to act as he wants, unless these actions do not harm others. If the action is self-regarding, that is, if it only directly affects the person undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene, even if it feels the actor is harming himself.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

2007-07-07T23:18:00.000+09:00

Who is Thomas Hobbes? He was very affected by Wars of the Three Kingdoms (sometimes known as the Wars of the Three Nations) between 1639 and 1651. His work, Leviahan, was written in 1651. After he experienced the wars, he thought over how the nation could stay carm and wrote his idea about it on the book.

"Three" in three kingdoms means Scotland, Ireland and England. The best known of these conflicts is the English Civil wars. The English Civil War was a really profound political event in seventeenth century Europe. During this period, the Stuart kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland, and the Principality of Wales were ripped apart by religious and political unrest. It was also part of a wider struggle between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. Oliver Cromwell, by the way, played a key role in the war.

Leviathan

2007-07-04T02:29:00.000+09:00

I will read during the course Leviathan written in 1651 and written by Thomas Hobbes who was an English philosopher.

He acclaims that human beings are not naturally good but selfish. People behave just what he or she want to do if they are at natural state. He tried to describe the human society without a government or a rule. And he concluded that people would fight against one another in order to pursue their self-interests. Then, he stated that the way to avoid such cruel situstion is that to have commonwealth.

Misaki

2007-07-03T00:00:00.001+09:00

Socrates could not convince Plato's brothers any more, he tried to prove just is superior to unjust using a city as a model. He thought it would be better to clearfy what just is in a city rather than in a man. From then, he started to talk about why a city arose.

And what they found is each people should do one thing, one job inherited by nature.

Misaki

Justice or Injustice

2007-07-01T18:33:00.000+09:00

In summary, the core argument in the Republic is about justice. Throughout the book, main points is what the virtue justice is and why a person should be just. Now, we are going to track the discussion about them.

In the first part of the book, it says that returning debts owed, and helping friends while harming enemies are justice. But Socrates think the definition is not adequate. In the next step, one of philosophers says justice is the benefit for strongers more than anything else. Socrates does not agree with his idea. After some discussion, Socrates succeedes in persuading him to admit his statement was wrong.

After that, Plato's two brothers challenge Socrates to define justice. One of Plato's brother, Glaucon, uses the legend in which a man discovered a ring that gave him the power to become invisible. Glaucon argue that every man would do unjust things if he had the opportunity like that. Thus, no man would be just by his nature. Graucon's statement is that the just person is forced to be just because he is just afraid of doing injustice for fear of being punished. He defend the position that the just life is better than the unjust life with the legend.

The story continues on and on. I will show you the next time.

Four constitutions

2007-06-30T23:54:00.000+09:00

Socrates and other philosophers argue the nature of the good city. And they also try to find the nature of a bad city to know whether a man living in a good city is happiest or a man living in a bad city is not.

Socrates points out four constitutions as a example for a bad city. One is Cretan or Laconian constitution. The second is oligarchy. Next is democracy. And tyranny is the fourth. They try to seek human character in each constitution because there must be as many oforms of human character as there are of constitutions. Every conversation in the book is intended to clearfy the meaning of justice and whether people who has it can really lead happiest life or not.

Misaki

Allegory of the cave

2007-06-29T04:52:00.001+09:00

The important thing for allegory of the cave is that the big difference between a man who saw the truely real thing with his eye out of the cave and men who are in the cave and believed that the shadow they saw was truely real thing.

It is written that the man who went out of the cave would go through any sufferings rather than share prisoner's beliefs and live as they do. In addition, if the man went back down into the cave, his eyes would be filled with darkness coming suddenly from the place filled with light. And then, the prisoners would laugh at the man because he could not see anything in the cave though the prisoners could see clearly.

It suggests it will take time to need flexibility to become comfortable with the environment. However, it will not be easy. And it will not be possible to share thoughts between the man and the prisoners.

Allegory of the cave

2007-06-28T22:21:00.000+09:00

Today, I'm showing the most famous part in the Republic. It is about allegory of the cave. Let me tell you the story Socrates says in the book about the effect of education and that of the lack of it.

Imagine human beings living in an underground, their cavelike house. They have been living there since childhood and have not moved from the same point. What they could see was the wall in front of them. Above and behind them, fire is burning. And between prisoners and the fire, there is a road. Along this road, people are carrying artifacts such as statues of people and other animals made of stone or wood. Some people are talking carrying statues. The other is silent.

The problem for the prisoners is that they could see only the shadows of people and the statues they are carrying casted on the wall. For that reason, they would take it for true reality.

One day, a man was allowed to see the fire itself and the statues itself. At first, he would not be able to see them because it was too bright for him. So, he would believe the shadow he used to see had been easy to see and ,thus, more truly real. This suggests he would be unable to see a single one of the things said to be truly real. Moreover, he would need time to get adjusted to see the truly real things above the cave.

On the contrary, a man he has got adjusted to see the fire with his eyes and known what the truly real things are would not want to go back to the cave and live with the prisoners who still did not believe the shadows were the real things. And he also would not be able to see the thing in the cave because it was too dark to see.

2007-06-27T22:41:00.000+09:00

Have you ever seen the picture of Gandhi or him on the TV program? If so, do you remember what he was wearing?

In 1917, he travelled all over India. He saw the terrible poverty of the people there. He saw the dirty clothes of women by chance. And he told her to clean the clothes. However, she said to Gandhi's wife who was also taking a trip with him that "See, I have no other clothes. I have put on the only piece of cloth I have! How am I to wash it?" Gandhi was really moved at her statement. Then, he decided to be simplar still from this point though he was stll in simple clothes. He gave up wearing a cap and a shirt. Instead, he wore only a lion-cloth. His compassion appeared in his wearing.

2007-06-26T23:22:00.000+09:00

Gandhi's originality as a thinker and political leader appears in his theory and practice of nonviolence. He was inspired by Leo Tolstoy in course of creating the concept of nonviolence. Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer and philosopher as well as pacifist Christian anarchist and educational reformer. He is also well known for his idea of nonviolent resistance. The book I'm reading now says "he believed that to return injury for injury does harm both to ourselves and our enemy."

Gandhi shows the character of nonviolence in the book. He says that permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence. And there are lots of his remarks about nonviolence. I have to know the background of emergence of his idea, nonviolence however.

Gandhi, a charkha

2007-06-26T11:07:00.000+09:00

Hi. I'm writing for yesterday's blog because I could not access to the Internet yesterday at my home. I'm sorry about this.

By the way, I'm going to write about "a charkha", a spinning wheel, which is a tool Gandhi used for his teaching. This is also a symbol of Indian Independence Movement and drawn on the earlier versions of the Flag of India. If you get interested in it, please go to http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/India1931flag.png and take a look at the flag.

He claims a charkha brings the India freedom. What he wished using a charkha as a symble of his thought was that everyone, rich or poor or in between, should have access to food, shelter and clothing in a self-reliant way. If not doing this, he believed Indians would be enslaved because they could not help themselves living on their own. As result, by doing this, he hoped that people in India can be independent.

Misaki

the Republic, Book 6

2007-06-24T22:32:00.000+09:00

In the Republic, it is also written about a philosopher. Let me show you what they talk about him.

Socrates thinks a philosopher should become a king and govern a city. But, his idea will be disregarded, and he will come under severe criticism. In order to persade people who is against the idea, Socrates starts to define a philosopher. If he can make clear, those who is not for Socrates may get to know his theory.

First, Socrates asserts the philosophers are "the ones who are able to grasp what is always the same in all respects." Second, he says the philosophers "must hate falsehood and have a natural affection for the truth." Third, the philosophers must be temperate. On the contrary, they should not be money-loving and coward. Moreover, they have to be good at remembering.

Next, Socrates moves to the other topic which is how the good philosophers must be educated.
I found that he discuss the philosophers and provides me with the knowledge of philosophy and a philosopher.

Misaki

2007-06-23T22:34:00.000+09:00

Today, I enjoyed reading the book, and found interesting conversation in it.

First, Socrates and Graucon, Plato's older brother, mention gender role. It is interesting because the problem is always a centre of concern among people in modern world as well as in Ancient Greece. They says each one has to do the one job for which he was naturally suited despite of sex. Thus, women can share by nature any jobs because the various natural capasities are distributed between men and women.

Second, they lay down the prohibition of privatization. They confirm that it is the greatest thing for a city to bind it together. How it can be come true is "sharing pleasure and pain bind it together when all the citizens feel more or less the same joy or pain at the same gains or looses."
So, if people are going to real gurdians, they should not have private houses, land, or any other posession. From this, I came to know the meaning of sharing in the public.

Misaki

2007-06-22T23:41:00.000+09:00

Hi. Today, let me make sure what justice is and how it means to a city.

The Philosophers discuss how a city can be established. And they found justice is by no means the element to form a city. Then, what they laid down and often repeated is that "each person must practice one of the pursuits in the cuty, the one for which he is naturally best suited." Lets's take the farmares in a city as example. If they put on gorgeous clothe and wear gold jewelry, and tell them to work in their farms whatever they want, a farmer won't be a farmer. Likewise, any of the others won't be characterized to the tarue type. So, please consider if it was a leader of a city. If the guardians of a city quit his work and just pretend to be, they will destroy the city. This is the point why Socrates states people should concentrate on one thing for establish a good city.

Misaki

2007-06-21T22:51:00.001+09:00

"State of Nature". It is the key idea when reading Rousseau's works. I could not figure out it yet. He praise state of nature and see civilized society as inferior one. And he states the difference between wild animals and human beings.

I will keep on reading his works .

Misaki

Rousseau's idea, Inequality

2007-06-20T22:56:00.001+09:00

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a French philosopher and a composer in 18th century. In this summer, I will read one of his works called "Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inquality Among Men." His political idea influenced the French Revolution.

Human beings was once in the state of nature in which there is no inequality because those who were in the state of nature had almost no relationship with each other. Moreover, Rousseau sffirmed those people were born pure. Thus, they knew neither vice or virtue. Anyway, he proclaims that there are two types of inequality. One is natural or physical inequality since it is established by nature and consists in the difference of age, health, bodily strength, and qualities of mind or soul. Another is called moral or political inequality His theory starts from this point of view.

Misaki

Justice

2007-06-19T22:58:00.000+09:00

Today I found that what Socrates said about justice in a nation and in a individual.

Socrates and the other philosophers draw the conclusion that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what is not one's own. The reason is based on what they discussed before. They discussed it is certainly beneficial and proper for a city to let people work for one particular job and not to let him devote energy to another work. So, if he is a farmer, he should provide food for the rest of citizens and spend time and labor to provide food to be shared by them all. Abode all, each of us differs somewhat in nature from the others. On the contrary, if a carpenter attempts to make shoes although this is not him major work, it does not make sense and do have influence to their life in a city.

I may not support the idea raised in the book. However, what they state is that to do their own work in a city is justice and makes the city just.

Misaki

2007-06-18T23:41:00.000+09:00

Plato in the book tells us how a leader in a nation has to be grown up and what they should acquire.

He states the both, music training and physical training. And he emphasized the harmony between music training and physical training is the most important thing to educate people. Why are they so important? They are to treat body and soul. Both traing affects on the other traing. When I was reading it, I came up with the idea "Bunbu Ryodo" in Japanese. It means that to be both in academics and sports. Then, I thought one big thought perpetuates all over the world no matter what the nation, people, life is.

Misaki

2007-06-17T21:58:00.000+09:00

I'm sorry that I didn't write any contents for today's blog. I'll edit later.

Gandhi's Satyagraha

2007-06-16T21:56:00.000+09:00

Today, I got interested in the Gandhi's two types of theories; Satyagraha and Swaraj. So, I would be happy if I can convey you what I found about him. I will focus on Satyagraha in this blog.

The term, Satyagraha, is tha word which represents Gandhi's thought or belief during the fhight for discrimination in South Africa. The biggest incident he faced was "Black Act" in 1906. The Government in South Africa issued an order that all Indians — men, women and children should register themselves with Government by giving their full finger-prints and get their permits. He who fails to do so, will be fined, imprisoned or deported from the country. So, Gandhi declared: "This is an insult to the Indian community. We must fight this 'Black Act' in a non-violent way. The Government might use force, arrest us, send us to jail, and prosecute us, but we must face all this without resistance." He called this "Satyagraha". Actually, this means "force of truth and love". To be specific, Satyagraha avoids not only external physical violence but also violence of spirit. In addition, Gandhi stated Satyagraha includes the attitude to respect for the opponent. Related to this, Martin Luther King Jr. interpreted his idea as a spirit of cutting off the chain of hate. His concept of Satyagraha are nowappriciated in all over the globe.

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

2007-06-15T20:58:00.000+09:00

Today, I'm showing you the content of Book 2 in the Republic.

Related to the last blog about "Book 2 in The Republic", we found that some philosophers, especially Adeimantus, believe and tries to conceive Socrates that "No one is just willingly. Through cowardice or old age or some other weakness, people do indeed object to injustice. But it is obvious that they do so only because they lack the power to do injustice." Continuously, Adeimantus do demand Socrates to demonstrate "How justice - because of its very self - benefit its possessor, and how injustice harm him." He emphasizes he doesn't need to hear "justice is stronger than injustice."

For his request, Socrates plans to argue justice associated with cities in order to find out if the larger entity is similar in form to the smaller one.

For the next discussion between Socrates and Adeimantus, they think over why a city come about and why justice and injustice come to exist in a city.

See you,

Misaki

Gandhi, His Early Life

2007-06-14T13:58:00.000+09:00

Today, I read the book about Gandhi. I'm going to show you what I found in the book.

He was born on October 2, 1869, into a Hindu family. His father, Kaba Gandhi, was an influential political figure. His mother is depicted as faultless. Gandhi said crucial influence on his life came from his mother. By the way, he describes himself as "very shy" and "mediocre student". And he was feeling fears most. He says in his autobiography that "I was coward. I used to be haunted by the fear of thieves, ghosts ans serpents. I did not dare to stir out of doors at night. Darkness was a terror to me." One of the reasons why he was such a weak boy is because of his early arranged marriage at thriteen years old. From this time, courage and fearlessness became hard sought virtues.

Gandhi summarizes central values that he had formed by age eighteen as he prepared to leave India for England. He left for London to study law in September 1888. He believes his cowardice vanished before the desire to go to England. He started his life in London at age nineteen determined to "be clumsy no more, but to try to become polished." He struggled to be a member of sophisticated culture abroad as he suggests he spent his money on buying an evening suit in the centre of fashionable life in London. He wasted ten minutes every day before a huge mirror, watching himself arranging his tie and parting his hair in the correct fashion.

There are some decisive events in his life to form his philosophy. The story about him will continue for the next time I write blog.

See you,

Misaki

Socrates

2007-06-13T22:13:00.000+09:00

Today, l'm going to show you brief introduction for Plato's teacher, Socrates.

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher and regarded as the father of political philosophy and ethics or moral philosophy. There is little source of information about him. So, Plato contributed to provide Socrates's story with us. Socratic Method is best rememberd as his theory. This is called method of inquiry. In this method, a series of question are supposed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. He once said that
"I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others."

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

2007-06-12T22:49:00.000+09:00

Today, we are going to keep on looking at the Book 2 in the Republic.

After Graucon finished arguing about his opinion about the origin of justice, his older brother Adeimantus became involved in the discussion. In the book, he states "When fathers speak to their sons to give them advice, they say that one must be just, as do all those who have others in their charge. But they do not praise justice itself, only the good reputation it brings. This is because if we are reputed to be just, then, as a result of our reputation, we will get political offices, good mariages and so on."

Next, He tells Socrates that there is another kind of argument about justice and injustice to consider. That is "justice and temperance are fine things, but difficult and onerous, while intemperance and injustice are sweet and easy to acquire and are only shameful by reput and convention."

In addition, he continues "there is no advantage in my being just if I am not also thought just. If it is true, I must surely turn entirely to it."

It seems there is no explanation to support the idea injustice is much more benefitable and good than justice. Thinking of this sort of topic is really important and meaningful to us, the young to consider how they should live their life from now. I think it is the very issue which have an influence on us.

See you,

Misaki

Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke and J.S.Mill

2007-06-11T21:27:00.000+09:00

Today, I want to introduce five well know philosophers in the world who are also going to be our main people to be analyzed in my course.

First, I will tell you Thomas Hobbes. He was an English philosopher from the late 16 century to the late 17 century. He is today best remembered for his work on political philosophy. However, he contributed to the other fields of study,too. Do you know his famous book? It's Leviathan which is just the book we will read in the class, I think. And someone else, we will study John Locke and his work called Two Treaties of Civil Government, Rousseau and his work called Discourse on the Orgin and Foundation of Inquality Among Men. There are two more philosophers we will serch for. They are Burke and his work named Reflections on the Revolution in France and J.S. Mill and his work called On Liberty.

For further information, I will write about them later.

See you,

Misaki

Book 2 in the Republic

2007-06-10T13:18:00.000+09:00

Today, we're going to look at Book 2 in the Republic. Glaucon who is Plato's older brother and Socrates argues about what justice is and what the orgin of justice is.And in the last part of Book 2, Socrates tries to think over justice from the perspective of what it means to a nation.

Glaucon states what he want to hear from Socrates is "what justice and injustice are, and what power each has when it is just by itself in the soul." Additionally, he explains how justice is considered to be and what the origins are. Second, he argues that all persons are unwilling to practice it and feel they are forced to do it. Third, he argues that there is no reason to deny their acts.

Later, he explains the origin of justice from his viewpoint. It is the laws or convenants which people promised not to do injustice to others or to suffer it. Because they know that to do injustice is naturally good and to suffer injustice bad, and badness of suffering it far exceeds the goodness of doing it, they come to an agreement not to do such thing each other. All in all, he asserts that people practice justice unwillingly because they lack the power to do injustice. Thus, justice is not a positive one but a negative one.

To get to understand the book is really hard to me. But I hope my knowledge of the book will become deeper.

Thank you for reading my blog.
See you,

Misaki

Book 1 in the Republic

2007-06-09T23:44:00.000+09:00

Hello. I want to describe synopsis of Book 1 in the Republic today to understand interactive flow.

The story starts when Socrates meets Polemarchus and his aged father, Cephalus in Book 1. They discuss the burdens of old age. Socrates says "I enjoy engaging in discussion with the very old. I think we should learn from them - since they are like people who have traveled a road that we too will probably have to follow - what the road is like, whether rough and difficult or smooth and easy." Concering the burdens of ald age, Cephalus tells the real cause is not old age but the way people live. He continues "If they are orderly and contented is only moderately onerous." The word "onerous" means work or a responsibility that is onerous is difficult and worrying or makes you tired.

After the converstaion, Cephalus hands over the argument about the definition of justice to Polemarchus and goes off to a sacrifice to the gods.

Socrates and Polemarchus keeps on talking about justice. Polemarchus emphasizes Justice is what is advantageous for the stronger. He supports his idea with two separate arguments.

I would like to move to Book 2 in the next time.

See you,

Misaki

the Prince

2007-06-08T21:22:00.000+09:00

What I'm going to tell you today is about the Prince written by Machiavelli.

The Prince is unique. It is not because it explains how to take control of other lands and how to control them, but because it gives advice that often disregards all moral and ethical rules. It is different from other books about creating and controlling principalities because it doesn't tell you what an ideal prince or principality which princes are the most successful in obtaining and maintaining power. In addition, his best known remark is that "mokuteki no tame nara syudan wo erabanai" in Japanese. Because of this assertion, the book is recognized extreme. This influential book explain methods to secure and maintain political power. And it simply describes the means how individuals have tried to take control and to maintain power.

See you,

Misaki

Machiavelli and Medici

2007-06-07T11:12:00.000+09:00

Today, I discovered the relationship between Machiavelli and Medici. Machiavelli is a key person in the field of Political Theory as well as Plato. And his work "the Prince" has been recognized as the masterpiece till today. It is translated into Japanese, kunsyuron.

He was an Italian political philosopher, musician, poet and romantic comedic playwright. By the way, the book was written for the Medici, and he showed them how the prince maintain
the power toin an attempt to make the country more stable.

See you,

Misaki

Gandhi

2007-06-06T18:45:00.000+09:00

Hello. I would like to illustrate Gandhi's biography briefly today in my blog.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in the town of Porbandar. He was the youngest of five children. His moither appers to be more influential on him than his father did. She is described as a faultless. In his childhood, he was very shy and mediocre student. When he set out for England to study law in Septenber 1888. Though going abroad to England is really rare, his family were willing to help him with advancing his interests in terms of finance. He started to get involved in English society, determined to "be clumsy no more, but to try to become polished" at age nineteen. He was trying hard to become English gentleman. However, this idea would be questionable to himself.

I will tell you the rest of the story in the next time.

See you,

Misaki

2007-06-05T19:30:00.000+09:00

Hi. Today, I found a little thing about Machiavelli and the Renaissance.

Modern political thought begins when Niccolo Machiavelli wrote the Prince. It marks new period of history. To completely understand why it do so, it seems we need to know the background in that era.

The era is called the Renaissance. It begins with Francesco Petrarch's discovery in 1345 of a copy of Cicero's letter's to Attics regarding to this field of study. The remarkable thing about his letter is, firstly, it is written in Lattin. Secondly, the letter caused thought about time and change. Not only language but also institutions, clothes, currency weights and measures, everything, had changed since Cicero's time. Third, the letter led a questioning of Christian values. The values which emphasized pride and courage rather than humility and guilt citizenship rather than salvation were very different from Christianity.

See you,

Misaki

the Book: Modern Political Thought

2007-06-04T23:53:00.000+09:00

I've got three textbooks at last! Today, I'm going to show you one of the books titled "Modern political Thought" written by David Wootton. This book provides an introduction to modern political philosophy from Machiavelli to Nietzsche. It is including other philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Smith, Burke, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Hegel and Marx. I'm exited to know of all of them in this summer. However, I don't have a confidence in understanding such a many people. But I just have to try to read the textbooks right now.

See you,

Misaki