Masataka Oki (Appointed in AY2025)

Since ancient times, philosophers have believed that there is an inseparable relationship between the animal known as "human" and the activity known as "politics." To the question "What is a human?", one answer is that they are "animals with language = the ability to engage in politics." I have been researching the extent to which the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant was influenced by this idea. By reading from this perspective, it has gradually become clear that while he inherited the ancient ideal—the idea that humans truly become human by participating in the creation of rules for living "well" alongside fellow citizens—he was also a person who worked on the modern update of the institutions and conceptual frameworks for that purpose.

When I first entered university, I didn't find the classes interesting; I skipped them and became deeply involved in managing the student dormitory where I lived at the time. Talking with all sorts of people there day and night seemed far more interesting and fun. However, in my third year, a seminar on political thought began that warmly welcomed even someone like me. The philosophy books I encountered there (Plato's "Republic" was particularly striking) were traces of thought with a shocking intensity regarding the very things I had begun discussing with my friends. It was then that I felt I finally truly encountered the "university."

Whenever you open a "classic" to think about something you want to understand at that moment, it leaps across a vast temporal divide and stimulates your thinking with an unbelievable sense of liveness. It is, without exaggeration, a "thrilling" experience. My research is an attempt at dialogue with past philosophers who are like "trans-dimensional stun guns" (?), and what I have written so far is a record of that. I want to continue writing things that allow people to feel the "groove" that arises between me and these figures who are like friends from the distant past.

At first, it is often difficult to feel how much of what you learn in university classes relates to your own life. Not a few people might see the person speaking at the lectern as someone from a far-off world that has nothing to do with them. At least, that is how I felt for the first two years or so of university. Looking back, I was still in the middle of searching for "something" I could say I truly loved. It goes without saying that the nature of that "something," as well as the timing of finding it, varies significantly from person to person. For now, please try to listen closely to your own heart in your daily life. When the outline of that "something" you are seeking becomes visible, the university will transform into something incredible for you. It is precisely because it has been such a place for countless predecessors around the world that the university has continued to exist.

By the way, if among the friends you can talk to openly, there is even one person who has begun to speak with sparkling eyes about something while weaving in slightly difficult words, a hint of your own "something" should be hidden within your conversations with that person. Please cherish such encounters with friends.