自分の言葉で哲学をせよ、というヘーゲルの流儀を継いで、日本語で、それも自分の日本語、つまり英語やスペイン語を介した日本語で哲学を模索中。まさに模索中だ。
「哲学」と「Ｐｈｉｌｏｓｏｐｈｙ」は意味がすでに違う。日本語には「知を愛する」意味での哲学は似合わないのだろう。「思想」のほうがしっくりくる。「思う」という言葉が、身近だから。「思う」という、小学生も使える言葉の意味を注意深く考えてみるのは、日本語で思想をするにあたって鍵だと思う（と、ここでも出ました。）
言葉の中に思想のカテゴリーが含まれている、とヘーゲルならば言うだろう。日本語に含まれているカテゴリーは何か。それは言葉全体に染み渡っている思想の特質だ。例えば「流儀」という言葉。あるいは「もったいない」「しょうがない」というときの「ない」という部分。「で、」と話を切り替えるときに起こる思考の動き、転換。「でもさ」という、近代的な切り替えしに比べて何が違うのか。「まあまあ」という具合に、音で直接「思い」を伝えること。そういうようなことに気がついていきたい。それを、単なる思い付きではなく、体系的にまとめる。
これをするにあたって、John R. Bentley氏の書いたA Descriptive Grammar of Early Old Japanese Proseは大いに役立つことになるだろう。
In the wake of Hegel's philosophical maxim to "think in one's own language," I am in search of a way of philosophizing in Japanese, or more precisely in my own Japanese, that is, a Japanese which is also mediated by English and Spanish. Indeed, I am searching.
The Japanese word "tetsugaku" already has a different connotation and meaning from its English counterpart, "philosophy." Perhaps philosophy as the "love of knowledge" is not well-suited to Japanese. "Shiso" - "thought-imagination," if I were to forcefully render the characters into English - is a much better way of putting it. Because the word "thought" (omou, another pronunciation of the shi in shiso) is much more familiar to us. To carefully reflect upon this word, which even elementary school students are good at using, seems to be key for the construction of a Japanese shiso.
Hegel would state that a language contains its own categories of thought. What are the categories included in Japanese? They are the unique qualities which permeate the entirety of a language. For example, the word "ryugi." Or the "nai" in "shouganai" or "mottainai." The turn of thought which occurs when one changes the topic of conversation with a "de," which is not as modern as the other way, "demosa" - and what are the differences between the two? And to communicate a thought through pure sound like "maa, maa." I hope to be more attentive to these and many other such details. And not haphazardly, but in a systematic manner.
In order to do this, John R. Bentley's A Descriptive Grammar of Early Old Japanese will undoubtedly be of great help.
