| dc.description.abstract | The academic society Meirokusha, founded in 1873, epitomizes what is today sometimes referred to as the “Japanese enlightenment”: the engagement with and transfer of Western political and philosophical ideas to Japan in a bid to nurture and foster bunmei kaika, “civilization and development”. Confucianism, the long-established intellectual tradition predominant in Japan in the immediately preceding period, is construed as the binary opposition to this phenomenon, the “tradition” necessitated by the belief in the “modern”. This thesis takes up the considerable Confucian influence in the magazine published by the Meirokusha in order to problematize this narrative of a “Japanese enlightenment”. It is argued that Confucianism cannot be essentialized as “conservative” or “traditional”, because of the wide variety and sometimes contradictory nature of the different responses to Western thought engendered by Confucianism. Confucian concepts continued to shape and inform the adaptation of Western philosophy and political thought even in the work of Japanese experts on the West who distanced themselves from Confucian orthodoxy. Looking toward Sebastian Conrad’s historical framework of a “global Enlightenment”, this thesis links the story of the Meirokusha with global trends as a starting point to understand the dynamic, two-way history of Western political ideas and their adaptation in other parts of the world. In particular, the ways in which the Confucian philosophical concept of Principle (理C. lǐ, J. ri ) found expression in the work of Meirokusha members Tsuda Mamichi and Nishi Amane, even when discussing Western political ideas such as the establishment of a popularly elected assembly, will be examined. Furthermore, it will be suggested that Confucian practice, such as the scholarly and practical ideal of individual enlightenment and a related societal obligation, found new expression in the writings of Sugi Kōji and Mori Arinori as the ideal shifted and became tied to pedagogy and statecraft suitable to the changing conditions of Meiji Japan. The role of Confucianism at this juncture in Japanese history remains relevant in the current world where the concept of “modernity” and its relationship to European Enlightenment thought is being rethought and supplemented with insights which point away from the presupposed convergence of “modern” societies. As the legitimating moral and philosophical underpinnings of that modernity might be more open to contestation now than they were at the time of the Meirokusha, Confucianism remains an important wellspring for alternative conceptualizations of what “modern” can mean. | eng |