The Philosophy of Opportunism | Yasutake Miyashiro, Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management
I cannot recall if it was during small talk in a class reading Leibniz's "New Essays on Human Understanding," but my undergraduate seminar professor once said, "If you leave politics to philosophers, things will turn out disastrously." But, Professor, this author has written other quite interesting things about politics and law. At the time, I hadn't studied enough to counter him like that; I could only picture the faces of several faculty members I knew through my classes. Those professors, while perhaps not involved in national politics, were constantly striving in the administration of the university and faculty, a fact I only realized belatedly after becoming a faculty member myself.
The reason I recalled something from so long ago is that I read a piece written by a certain philosopher about opportunism. His name was Renouvier. My seminar professor was also known as a researcher well-versed in Renouvier's work. This philosopher's essay was published in a magazine in November 1876—the year after the constitutional laws of the French Third Republic were gradually passed in a France wavering between radicals and conservatives.
Speaking of opportunism, in Japan, the term "hiyori" (to waver or play it safe) was born during the era of student movements, and it seems to be used lately with slightly different nuances. Replacing it with words like "opportunism" might make it sound a bit more sophisticated, but the substance is essentially the same, and it generally does not have a favorable reputation. However, Renouvier, surprisingly, defends this opportunism. One considers what their undertaking is likely to become and chooses the timing and means to advance it successfully. Surely no sensible person would oppose such an approach? This is what Renouvier argues.
Of course, the point is what type of opportunism it is. Renouvier does not suggest that it is good to simply look right and left, watching for an opening while letting time pass by. What is important is not recklessly pushing through certain principles or ideals, but rather discerning how and to what extent they can be realized in the current situation. Since it proceeds in two stages—establishing principles and then considering their feasibility—Renouvier's opportunism is not about having no principles to protect, but about implementing principles progressively. It could be said that it was thanks to the politicians who were mocked as "opportunists" at the time that France, which had repeated revolutions and coups d'état, was finally able to achieve a soft landing for the Republic.
Come to think of it, in Nakae Chomin's "A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government," a character (Master Nankai) says that the "God of Evolution" dislikes "desiring to do what absolutely cannot be done in that time and that place." However, being mindful of time and place does not mean accepting the status quo unconditionally. Moving forward in time, Masao Maruyama regarded reality as a bundle of various possibilities. Which of these should be nurtured, and which should be corrected? He argued that the way of thinking that relates this judgment to political ideals and goals is vital. One cannot separate the recognition of what kind of reality exists from the judgment of which direction we should move in from here.
Reading an old foreign editorial led to various associations, but regardless of the utility of philosophy in the secular world, I was struck by the thought that Renouvier's opportunism must surely provide hints for campus administration as well.