Ethics

Overview

The Graduate School of Letters is one of the few graduate schools in the country that offers a specialized program in ethics in addition to philosophy. Keio has the largest number of academic staff in ethics among any domestic university and is a center for ethics research in Japan.

Since its establishment in 1951, the Ethics Program within the Department of Philosophy and Ethics has conducted research and education on the Western tradition, in particular modern and contemporary German, French, British, and American moral philosophy. The fields of research covered by a course in Ethics include normative ethics, metaethics, applied ethics, history of ethics, philosophy of religion, and social philosophy. Every year we invite leading scholars from beyond those fields to give lectures that provide students with additional opportunities to delve deeper into ethics.

Around 10 students are enrolled in our program, each pursuing specialized research on issues of their own interest. An emphasis on small-group education helps students to write academic papers and become comfortable in interacting with other researchers.

Faculty

Name/Position

Department/Specialty/Research Interest/Publication

  • ARAYA, Daisuke
    Professor

    Ethics
    Philosophy, Ethics

    I have been conducting research to explore in depth the ideological potential of modern and contemporary French philosophy, especially the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan. Lacan's psychoanalysis reveals the logic behind the emergence of a framework of perception that we call "the world" in the midst of the interplay of various people's desires, and it provides us to rethink the structure of the "world" we now take "for granted". In my books such as "Is There a Way Out for Capitalism?" and "A Usable Philosophy," I have attempted to reveal the framework of thought that defines us at the level of the unconscious various discourses accumulated historically. Based on such theoretical insights, I'm currently working on the social implementation of "Gift Economy 2.0." For more details about "Gift Economy 2.0," please refer to my book, Gift Economy 2.0, or visit the following website: https://heart-land.io

    Publication
    • 『贈与経済2.0：お金を稼がなくても生きていける世界で暮らす』（翔泳社、2024）
    • 『ラカンの哲学：哲学の実践としての精神分析』（講談社メチエ、2018）
    • 『資本主義に出口はあるか』（講談社新書、2019）
    • 『使える哲学：私たちを駆り立てる五つの欲望はどこから来たのか』（講談社メチエ、2021）
  • ERTL, Wolfgang
    Professor

    Ethics
    History of Ethics, Metaphysics, Modern Ethics, Immanuel Kant's Philosophy

    I am interested in topics situated at the intersection of metaphysics and ethics, mainly, but not exclusively in Kant. These topics include the multifaceted debate on free will and determinism, the question of objectivity and realism in ethics, Kant’s transcendental idealism and his approach to moral philosophy, as well as the conception of natural practical law in Aquinas and Scotus. Currently, I am working on a monograph on the relevance of Luis de Molina's thought for Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy. Molina is a 16th century Scholastic philosopher and theologian, and in my opinion, Kant's revolutionary ideas about free will are to a large extent inspired by this remarkable predecessor of his.

    Publication
    • Kants Auflösung der“dritten Antinomie”: Zur Bedeutung des Schöpfungskonzepts für die Freiheitslehre（Freiburg, München: Alber, 1998）
    • David Hume und die Dissertation von 1770: Eine Untersuchung zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Philosophie Immanuel Kants（Frankfurt/M.: Lang, 1999）
    • “Ludewig”Molina and Kant's Libertarian Compatibilism, in Matthias Kaufmann and Alexander Aichele (eds), A Companion to Luis de Molina (Leiden, Boston: Brill 2014), pp. 405-445.
    • The Guarantee of Perpetual Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2020).
    • Free Will, Foreknowledge and Creation: Further Explorations of Kant’s Molinism. In: Kantian Review 28 (2023), 497-518, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1369415423000444
  • TSUGE, Hisanori
    Professor

    Ethics
    History of British Ethical Thought

    I have been doing research in the fields of history of ethics, theory of ethics and applied ethics. In history of ethics, I have been trying to trace the history of modern British ethical thought and to understand its whole story; in theory of ethics, trying to examine main theories of contemporary ethics and to show their possibilities and limitations; and in applied ethics, trying to consider ethical problems in economy and to analyze their causes.

    Publication
    • 『良心の興亡：近代イギリス道徳哲学研究』（ナカニシヤ出版、2003／増補版、山川出版社、2016）
    • 『イギリスのモラリストたち』（研究社、2009）
    • 『プレップ倫理学』（弘文堂、2010／増補版、2021）
    • 『プレップ経済倫理学』（弘文堂、2014）
    • 『近代イギリス倫理思想史』（ナカニシヤ出版、2020）