Civilizations and value 3 ( ways for different civilizations to coexist )

I have briefly explained civilization and quasi-civilization. First, we divided it into civilization and quasi-civilization . We have classified civilizations and quasi-civilizations within each category, but what is the meaning of classifying them in this way ?

 

The purpose of this classification is to understand what kind of "lifeform" each civilization is . The aim is to grasp the characteristics that lie at the heart of the life of that civilization . We are trying to look at civilization by the same way we look at specimens of insects and plants . Seen from this perspective, the extinct Inca and Aztec civilizations may be seen as ``living entities'' that have been killed (though there are still a few that survive) . Classifying civilizations is the first step in understanding each civilization as a living entity . This must also lead to thinking about how these things should be respected and preserved .

 

However, on the other hand, there will naturally be resistance to an approach that views civilization as life. Although it is not a civilization, the theory that society is an organism has long been rejected. Sociology uses the concepts of social structure and social change. Rather, it may be easier to explain it using the concepts of civilizational structure and civilizational change, borrowing concepts from sociology . And perhaps it is the sociological approach that is consistent with the five principles of civilization (value, technological efficiency, social structure, reaction force, external force/environmental force) mentioned in "Study of Civilization". 

 

The sociological approach is linked to industrialization and modernization, and has developed as a tool for analyzing European civilization. As parts of Asia have developed, sociological approaches have also evolved in the sense of examining this development. However, considering sociology's long history, it is like looking at a subject for a very short period of time (modernization in European civilization).

 

Seeing each civilization as a living thing seems to be related to having a perspective that also sees modernization in Europe as part of the life of European civilization. Isn't it more natural to think that there is something like life in the phenomenon of a civilization that declines and dies as a group, but then revives as a group and emerges? As a way to explore life, we will begin with the seemingly unremarkable task of collecting and classifying civilizations, much like looking at plants and insects.

 

 Let's reorganize the criteria for classifying civilizations.

 

【civilization】

　　Cosmopolitan type        1  European civilization

       　　　                            2  Islamic civilization

　　　　Local type               3  Indian civilization

                                　　       4  Chinese type

 

【quasi-civilization】

　　Colonial type　　　 　 5  Oceania type

                                             6  South American type or North American type

       Penetration type           7  African type

                                            8  Eurasian (Russian) type

       Frontier type                9  Far East type (Japan, Korea)

                                          10  Far Western type (Britain, Northern Europe)

       Fusion type                 11 Eastern European type

                                           12  Southeast Asia type

 

The details have been mentioned in ``Study of Civilization'' and ``Study of quasi-civilization.'' These classifications had the purpose of capturing the life of each civilization or quasi-civilization.

However, there was another major purpose. `` How should organic relationships , coexistence, and prosperity be achieved between civilizations ?'' In ``study  of quasi-civilization ,'' I attempted to explore ways for different civilizations to coexist .

 

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Civilizations and value 2 ( civilizations and quasi-civilizations )

However, there was one conclusion that was shown in ``Study of Civilization.'' Civilizations did not evolve through changes in the form of individual civilizations, but rather it was the relationships between these civilizations that gave rise to and evolved civilizations.

 

A typical example of this may be the relationship between Islamic civilization and European civilization. The relationship between these two civilizations resulted in the creation of the current Western civilization. In this relationship, the ``scarcity'' that remained at the center of the driving force of European civilization was overcome, giving rise to Western civilization's faith in military and capital.

 

This background in civilization theory may actually be the most important. The change in hegemony is also often discussed from an economic or capitalist perspective. However, capital and military forces cannot be established on their own. Elucidating this problem will be another important theme of this paper.

 

As with any civilization, there is a moral system that operates human society. And that becomes the standard of civilization. Among them, there were civilizations whose moral systems had influence across multiple nations. Here, we will specifically refer to such civilizations as ``civilizations,'' which are like stars having  the influence  to planets. Such civilizations include European civilization, Islamic civilization, Indian civilization, and Chinese civilization . These four civilizations are aggregations of humans who have had systematic morals in an international sense , and have influenced smaller civilizations in their periphery.

 

On the other hand, in the sense of " a nation , " this is a collection of humans that has its own moral system , and that has been greatly influenced by so-called "civilization." In this case, I will specifically refer to it as a "quasi-civilization . "

 In the ``Research on Quasi-Civilizations'', there were roughly four types of such quasi -civilizations .

 

　① Colonial type quasi-civilization, ② Penetration type quasi-civilization, ③ Frontier type quasi-civilization, ④ Fusion type quasi-civilization.　

 

Therefore , I proposed a method of classification .

 

Oceania and South America as “colonial quasi-civilizations” (North America may also be included)

Russia as “penetrating quasi-civilizations”

The Far East and the Far West as “frontier quasi-civilizations”

 Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia as ``fusion-type quasi-civilizations . ''

 

 Each quasi-civilization can be explained as an ideal type as follows.

A colonial type quasi-civilization is a civilization in which the influence of the colonizers was stronger than that of the natives, and an penetrating type semi-civilization is a  civilization in which the influence of the natives remained relatively strong over the penetrating civilization .  Frontier-type quasi-civilizations are those that were under the influence of civilizations (one of the four civilizations) on only one side , but on the other hand, their unique characteristics remained strong , and fusion-type quasi-civilizations are civilizations surrouned from multiple directions . It is a quasi-civilization that has been strongly influenced by several  civilizations(including quasi-civilizations) , but has also been created by overlapping these influences .

 

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Civilizations and value 1 ( classifying civilizations in terms of general concepts )

civilization and values

 

Chapter 1 　Civilization 

1  Idea type when thinking about civilization

 

I have continued to research civilizations and quasi-civilizations. In the study of civilization, I have mainly been thinking about the relationship between Toynbee's theory and civilization in terms of civilization and time. There was another character in the study of civilization. It's Spengler. I said that I would like to think about Spengler at a later date under the theme of civilization and values. Here we will think about civilization and values.

 

However, the translation of Spengler's "The Decline of the West" is difficult to understand (it must have been difficult to translate because the content is so diverse), and there are many things that are difficult for me, who is Japanese, to understand, including various issues in Arabic culture. It was too much. For this reason, I decided to set aside the ``decline of the West'' for the time being and, taking a hint from Spengler's perspective, explain the issue of civilization and values by selecting examples from Japanese cultural issues.

 

Now, before thinking about civilization and values, I would like to reconsider the concept of civilization. We have considered civilizations and quasi-civilizations, and the idea of these civilizations has been proposed in this series of research as a standard for classifying civilizations. Each of these concepts can be treated as what Weber called an ideal type * . By considering ideal types, it becomes possible to understand the appearance of each individual civilization (civilization, quasi-civilization) in more detail by comparing them with ideal types.

 

 *Ideal type

Key concepts of Weber's social science methodology. Ideal type is a methodological concept. It has the meaning of a purely ideological limit concept, by which we measure reality and thereby articulate a certain meaningful part of the content of our experience.

 

 

2    4 civilizations and quasi-civilizations

 

When it comes to civilizations , it seems that they were not often categorized by type or style, just like looking at specimens. However, up until now, each has probably been talked about as vaguely self-evident. Of course, there were other classifications based on the characteristics of civilizations*1.

 

In this series of research has been the classification of civilizations according to general concepts. In a sense, I wanted to exhibit civilization as a specimen. The point is, how can we explain the individuality of each civilization? Can it be expressed more clearly by using general concepts? That was a big pillar of what I wanted to do.

 

Let's briefly review how civilizations are classified. First of all , it can be divided into two major groups based on its morphological characteristics .

These are the four "civilizations" and many other "quasi-civilizations . "

The four civilizations were classified according to two general concepts, and the quasi-civilizations were classified according to four general concepts.

 

*1 There was a time when civilizations were classified based on their individuality.

Toynbee's ``study of history'' introduced the concepts of civilization such as parent civilization, child civilization, stunted civilization, and miscarried civilization. In addition, the existence of 21 other civilized societies was proposed. However, it can be said that these 21 civilizations were classified not by general concepts but by their individuality. Civilizations are named by proper names, such as Egyptian civilization or Andean civilization. In other words, he has directly captured the individuality of the civilization he is observing. However, in that case, only one civilization exists, and there is no similarity between each civilization. This will not create empathy or relationships. Understanding and classifying civilizations in terms of general concepts rather than unique individualities is the first step in building empathy and relationships. In other words , it can be said to be an attempt to categorize civilizations using a method similar to Jung's typology.

 

*2 Morphological

In Spengler's ``The Decline of the West,'' the idea of viewing civilization as a form emerged. However, it can be said that this is not the form of a solid, but rather the change of a solid over time as a form.

With this in mind, at the very beginning of the classification, we roughly divided civilization and quasi-civilization. I did this because I believe that there will be differences in the way they develop in form.

Whether a ``civilization'' develops or declines, it will continue to influence smaller civilizations around it. In contrast, "quasi-civilizations" will continue to have their own moral systems, but will continue to be heavily influenced by "civilizations." At the center of this influence is the ``moral system'' of ``civilization,'' and depending on whether this is broad or narrow, we can call it civilization or quasi-civilization. Therefore, the equation `` civilization '' = ``moral system = religion'' can be said to be the central theme of civilization theory.

 

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Civilizations and space 10 (European civilization's taste )

Some people think that European civilization is characterized by collecting, but European civilization was pushed out into the Atlantic Ocean by Islamic civilization pushed out by the Mongol Empire. In response to Spain's dispersal of the wealth gained in the New World within Europe as military expenses, European countries that pursued mercantilistic policies accumulated capital in order to strengthen their military power. It led to the industrial revolution. the scale and duration of the war may have been a precursor to the Industrial Revolution. And it may be that the taste for capital accumulation has not changed since then.

 

Capital accumulation led to excess production capacity, which led to world wars, but in the process leading up to it, attention was also focused on consumption (Keynesian), but the question of whether consumption was really necessary remained, and the economic scale of developed countries alone remained. Demand will eventually become saturated, and even if technological innovation enables new lifestyles and creates new demand, it will not be as strong as it used to be, and the unproductivity of the public sector will become a problem (although it may not be so in Nordic countries). Demand has become a matter of quantity rather than quality, with urbanization and rising living standards in developing countries becoming a large core part of demand as quantity, but also for developed countries. Export industries and overseas expansion have become a lifeline for economic growth. In this way, cosmopolitan civilization was connected to globalization through capital accumulation, but it may be fair to say that this is creating friction with the existing system of the state.

But where did European civilization's taste for capital accumulation and military power come from? Was it not from want? At this point, let us conclude our spatial consideration of civilization.

 

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Civilizations and space 9 ( European cosmopolitan civilizations expansion )

The Reformation coincided with the growth of sovereign nations, but Protestants and Huguenots adopted mercantilism through commerce and industry in order to oppose Spain and its background, Catholicism, and worked to foster sovereign nations. However, combined with the development of military technology that accompanied the ever-increasing scale of warfare, it developed differently from other civilizations and led to the accumulation of capital. Braudel and Wallerstein saw the formation of capitalism in the upper strata of the market and the hegemony that moved to Venice, Anvers, Genoa, Amsterdam, and London, but security was brought about by strengthening military power. As a result, industries developed, capital was accumulated, and the capital was used militarily and economically to strengthen and expand the state itself (developmental cycle).

 

At what point in time did the incident that made us realize this cycle occurred? It was a "capitalist invention" for the economic management of the Italian city-states, and had a great influence on Spain and France, which fought over Italy. Wasn't it the Netherlands, where capitalists had acquired a base in Spanish territory, at the time of the start of the War of Independence (1568) from Spain, which imposed heavy taxes? The Fugger family fell (due to the influx of silver from South America and the bankruptcy of Philip II, etc.), and Italian cities began to fall along with the Old Church, but Spanish Jews moved to the Netherlands, which was the base of capitalism. As it was established, it instigated rebellion against Spain in various parts of Europe and fought against Spain. And the Dutch era begun, which was maintained by fomenting conflicts between sovereign nations*, but it led to the Second Hundred Years' War between France and England, and the Netherlands joined Britain in the Glorious Revolution. maintained life expectancy. Ultimately, however, the Netherlands, like the city-state of Venice, was occupied by Napoleon because of its lack of military power, and it was Britain, a sovereign state, that won the Napoleonic Wars.

*The Treaty of Westphalia is said to have ended the medieval system (Holy Roman Emperor, Pope) and created an unstable system in which sovereign states existed side by side. It was able to secure a commercial area (Baltic Sea), and in the process of narrowing down the number of sovereign states, it was united with Great Britain. The process of Dutch union with England is reminiscent of the process of Britain's union with America.

 

Holland, Britain and the United States ruled the world by sea and later by air, but when empires on land and in Eurasia joined forces,  China, Russia, Iran and the EU became an axis, the age of the maritime nations would change. It might come to an end. If that was meaningful prosperity for mankind , Japan would be forced to make a serious choice. The meaning of this would depend on whether we could correct the disparity in wealth and whether we could create a system that surpasses democracy to achieve the former goal.

 

The capital accumulated by the British Industrial Revolution was invested within European civilization, bringing about the second industrial revolution in Germany and the United States, and the capital was accumulated again, and this time it was invested in civilizations other than Europe, leading to the age of imperialism. became. A global oversupply caused two world wars, but it ushered in the Cold War era, controlled by two major powers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union has ushered in an era of America's unipolarity. America tried to control the world (it took over the world's consumption), but there were twists and turns. It seems that they have tried to solve it by increasing the consumption power of the surrounding two major civilizations plus alpha. It is the construction of a large consumption area in Asia that responds to the increase in supply capacity in response to capital accumulation, and we have entered an era in which resource, food, and environmental problems are the premise of this. In the future, the periphery connecting China, India, Indonesia and Oceania may become the center of the world*2.

 

I have been thinking about the relationship and transition between Islamic civilization, which was a cosmopolitan civilization, and European civilization. Islamic civilization could be said to be the first full-fledged cosmopolitan civilization in history, but it expanded spatially further when it was temporarily taken in by the Mongol Empire. Rather, there is also the idea that the Ottoman Turks, the Safavid Dynasty, and the Mughal Empire were greatly influenced by the Mongols and Turkey ＊. These empires, however, were not conscious of accumulating capital, as their creations shew. The empire followed the path of agricultural civilization, exhausting its surplus, deteriorating finances, and excessive tax collection alienating the interior and destabilizing the exterior.

 

*Mongol and Turkish influence on the Ottoman Turks, Safavid Dynasty, and Mughal Empire

These regions were, albeit temporarily or partially, subsumed by the Mongols, and were basically empires established as military states through the development of artillery.Safavid Dynasty  was a kingdom created by the Shiites (Twelve Imams) who did not appear openly. On the other hand, the Ottoman Turks were Sunnis who emphasized the ulama, and the Mughal Empire was strongly influenced by philosophers and Sufis. It may have leaned towards extreme mysticism when the empire was established, but as the empire stabilized, each of these three kingdoms began to show their individuality. The Safavid dynasty was a renaissance phenomenon of Shia Islam, but for the sake of rule, Abbas the Great gradually restored the authority of the ulama. The Ottoman Empire in the west was an empire that aimed to expand to the west, which was unusual for an Islamic empire. The janissaries and others consisted of residents from the European side and occupied a key position in the government (Devsirme). But for law, he used ulama heavily. The Ottoman Turks possessed the characteristics of the conquered Turkic peoples and used the Gazis heavily, but they maintained a cosmopolitan civilization by placing various conquered peoples in the right places. In that sense, it seems that they learned a lot from the Mongol Empire. The Mughal empire in the east used many Persians who had fled from the Safavid dynasty in power, and the influence of the Shiites was strong.  Such a situation combined with a philosophical trend led to the advocacy of a new religion during the reign of Emperor Akbar, but the Sunni sect revived during the reign of Aurangzeb, and the Mughal Empire entered turmoil.

Looking at it this way, the Ottoman Empire was influenced by Sunni and Turkish civilization, while the Safavid Dynasty was a rebirth of Shiite Islamic civilization against Mongolian and Turkish civilization, and the Mughal Empire was a Sunni and Persian civilization. It may be said that it was the Indian (Hindu) rule of a conquest dynasty with

 

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