Mita Philosophical Society Workshop
Event Date
Event Venue
"Where Responsibility Lies and Where It's Headed: An In-depth Discussion between Hirohide Takikawa and Yoshinori Saito"
2023/01/24
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Date and Time | Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 13:00–16:00 |
Location | Distance Learning Room, B4F, South Building, Keio University Mita Campus |
Eligibility | Open to everyone. Advance registration is required (details to be announced later). There will be no online broadcast. |
Speakers | Hirohide Takikawa (The University of Tokyo), Yoshinori Saito (Keio University) |
Moderator | Yoshinori Saito (Keio University) |
Organizer | Mita Philosophical Society |
Overview:
Our daily lives are conducted on the premise of people's responsible actions. It is believed that responsibility is conditioned on the person bearing it being, in principle, free. In other words, one cannot be held responsible for an act done under duress or for which there was no other choice. But is it true that we are free? And what does it mean to bear responsibility, which is only possible under freedom? Anyone who tries to answer these questions head-on is bound to be perplexed.
In response to these questions, our guest speaker Hirohide Takikawa, in works such as "The Meaning and System of Responsibility: From Burden to Response" (2003, Keiso Shobo) and "The Possibility of Acting Otherwise Is Not a Necessary Condition for Responsibility" (2008, "Hogaku Zasshi" Vol. 55, No. 1, Osaka City University), has persuasively argued that the factual inability to have done otherwise is not necessarily a condition for responsibility, and that the responsibility borne in such cases is not a burden but a response. From this perspective, he has embarked on an attempt to reinterpret the legal system and legal practice.
On the other hand, Yoshinori Saito, in "I Might Be Free: The Metaphysics of 'Freedom as Responsibility'" (2018, Keio University Press), has argued that through an examination of Heidegger's "analytics of death and conscience" and Levinas's philosophy of the "Other," I can, must, and in fact do bear my birth, death, and others—things over which I have no control—by "affirming" them, and that through this, I become free under "pure possibility."
In this workshop, both philosophers, who see responsibility as a response at the root of our actions, will present to each other several problems they have faced in further developing their respective philosophical concepts. Through frank discussion, we hope to deepen our thinking on responsibility. On the day of the workshop, Takikawa and Saito will each give a 40-minute presentation, followed by a break. The latter half will be dedicated to a 40-minute intensive discussion between the two. Active participation from the audience is also welcome.