Works on David Hume and the 18th century British Moral Philosophy
Philosophy of Language &c. -- Recent Works / Philosophy on the Web in Japan
Works on David Hume and the 18th century British Moral Philosophy
Since I started studying philosophy, David Hume's writings have been almost inexhaustible sources of questions and insights, though the focus of my interest has moved from epistemology to the theory of mind, and then to moral and social philosophy. I read a paper at the 24th Hume Conference (summer 1997 in California), at which a series of sessions by Japanese scholars took place.
The subject of the paper was 'How Conventional is a Promise?' It dealt with Hume's argument concerning the obligation of promises in comparison with what might be called the speech act view or language game view of promising. I showed that a promise is not quite a conventional speech act or a move in a language-game, but the fact that the promisor must linguistically express her intention is important for the understanding of Hume's whole argument concerning artificial virtues.
The full text of the paper is available on the web. I am also working, with several colleagues, on the continuation of a new Japanese translation of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, of which the first volume (published by Hosei University Press, Tokyo) Yoshinobu Kiso, my former professor at Kyoto University, had finished before his death. Hume on the Web
For more information about Hume, you may go to the Hume Society Home Page (its business address and URL have been changed in January 1998) and the Hume Archives.
D. Tycerium Lightner at Ohio State University manages his David Hume Homepage. It includes a bibliography of Hume's major philosophical works , a selected bibliography of secondary sources, a list of Hume links , and information on the Hume mailing list. It is extremely useful. Hume Scholarship in Japan
In Japan, a group of Hume scholars (The Hume Kenkyu Gakkai) holds a conference every spring and fall. About these conferences and other Hume events in Japan, look here.
Works on Language and Other Philosophical Subjects.
I am also interested in the contemporary philosophy of language, action, and mind of the analytical tradition. My recent publications include articles on the linguistic convention, on the theory of reference and on the computational theory of mind.
Philosophy on the Web in Japan
About analytic philosophy in Japan, the PSSJ (Philsophy of Science Society, Japan) Home Page may be useful.
There is also a List of Philosophical Web Sites in Japan presented by Kiyonori Nagasaki at Tsukuba University.