TWO TOKUGAWA ERA SKEPTICS: TOMINAGA NAKAMOTO AND ANDŌ SHŌEKI
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2022
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This thesis explores the worldviews of two relatively obscure intellectuals in Tokugawa Japan, Tominaga Nakamoto and Andō Shōeki, who are remarkable for their rebellion against the Three Teachings. Tominaga was the son of a merchant kicked out of his own school for undermining the traditional narrative of Confucian history. He would then go on to write a similar critique of Buddhist history and a shorter, concise work called The Writings of an Old Man (Okina no fumi). This thesis examines Tominaga's Writings of an Old Man and the idea presented there of the makoto no michi. Although the term makoto no michi is rendered by Michael Pye as “way of truth,” this thesis suggests that “way of sincerity” would be more accurate. Furthermore it explores how Tominaga understands this way of sincerity, and how he grounds it in his rejection of authority coming from the past. As for Shōeki, little is known about him aside from the fact that he was a doctor. Shōeki's worldview is examined from the perspective of nature (shizen). He can be understood as an egalitarian philosopher who understood hierarchy as the result of a kind of cosmic illness affecting humanity, causing us to predate on one another in the manner of animals. Shōeki thus argues against the status quo, and claims that his knowledge comes from a direct connection with nature, enabling him to reject both the student-teacher relationship and reliance on authoritative texts. The present thesis considers Tominaga and Shōeki together as radical outsiders who were able to work with existing intellectual resources towards creating new, independent worldviews diverging from the major East Asian traditions of their time.
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Religion, Andō Shōeki, history, Japan, religious skepticism, Tokugawa era, Tominaga Nakamoto
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83 pages
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