An Outline of a Theory of CivilizationFukuzawa Yukichi
Translated by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst
Monographs (1973) pp. 1–205
Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901) wrote Bummeiron no gairyaku in 1875 during the time when Japanese society was regrouping its values and priorities after having emerged from a long period of national seclusion. It is an important primary source document that reflects the new problematic of ideas being debated among the intellectuals of the Meirokusha group, the vanguard of the first wave of ‘modernizing’ intellectuals since the Meiji Restoration. Together with his best-selling Seiyō jijō (Conditions of the West, 1866) and Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning, written between 1872 and 1876), Bummeiron no gairyaku contributed to the shaping of public opinion in this turbulent period of Japanese history, and established Fukuzawa’s reputation as a leading educator and popular philosopher.
1973. xxiii + 205 pages.
Hardback. [Out of print]