Columbia University Press An Outline of a Theory of Civilization

Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901) rose from low samurai origins to become one of the finest intellectuals and social thinkers of modern Japan. Through his best-selling works, he helped transform an isolated feudal nation into a full-fledged international force. An Outline of a Theory of Civilization is Fukuzawa'a most sustained philosophical work. He translates and adapts a range of Western works for a Japanese audience, establishing the social, cultural, political avenues through which Japan could connect with the world.Echoing the ideas of Western contemporaries such as Emerson and Whitman, Fukuzawa encouraged a grassroots elevation of the individual and national spirit and a free initiative in the private domain. Fukuzawa's bold project articulated the thought that, for him, bolstered the material evidence of Western civilization. The essential difference separating Western countries from Japan and Asia as a whole, he argued, involved the extent to which citizens acted like free and responsible individuals. This careful new translation highlights the truly transnational aspects of Fukuzawa's work, as well as its status as a foundational text of modern Japanese civilization. Approaching Fukuzawa's theories with a fresh eye, the translators elucidate the peerless and monumental quality of Fukuzawa's thought.