論文

Protectionism and Free Trade:
From the Perspective of Duality of Information
Qingzhu YINⅠIntroduction
The 2019 G20 Osaka summit was held on 28­29 June, 2019, at the International

Exhibition Center in Osaka. The Osaka Leadersʼ Declaration states as follows regarding trade and investment: We welcome the G20 Ministerial Statement on
Trade and Digital Economy in Tsukuba. We strive to realize a free, fair, nondiscriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment, and to keep our markets open.
But the US-China trade war continues, and new Japan-Korea trade friction is intensifying.
In this study, we will approach the essence of liberalism proposed by Adam
Smith from the perspective of duality of information, and examine the possibility ofa solution to trade friction.
The structure of this paper is as follows. In the next section, we will address theAdam Smith-problem. And in section Ⅲ discuss the duality of information. In section Ⅳ we will take up Bergsonʼs philosophy, and in the final section we will state
the conclusion of this paper.

This paper is a revised version of the presentation report at the 9th East Asia Forum held at Tong-A University in Korea in November of 2019. After the forum, we went on an excursion to Geojedo POW Camp Archeological Park, which housed up to 170,000 POWs during the Korean War. Under the ideological conflict between liberalism and socialism, the Korean Peninsula, which has become a Go-board for world-wide politics, has become aplace of slaughter between fellow Koreans. Discrete families are still separated by the 38th parallel. The UnitedStates has begun another new hegemonic conflict in the Middle East in the name of democracy, so should Asians
blindly follow U.S. hegemony under the alliance cause or should we say No?

長崎県立大学論集（経営学部・地域創造学部） 第 巻 第 号

ⅡAdam Smith­Problem (Duality of Human Nature)
Adam Smith, the father of economics, pursued the essence of human sociality

from the Aristotelian perspective that “humans are political animals.”
In(1759), he argued that humans are not iso-lated beings but social beings who sympathize with each other, and developed a rational economic analysis by division of labor. In other words, Smith presented a“tree” of economics that considered people who acted reasonably in a free market
after presenting a “forest” of anthropology overlooking human society.
It is a model in which individuals as social beings maximize their economic interests under the constraint of approving a “fair observer in the chest”, the base of
the model is the sympathy between humans.
Smith argued that patriotism by sympathy would lead to the security and economic prosperity of the homeland, but at the same time pointed out that it included
selfishness that would create prejudice toward other countries. And he insisted thatdeepening exchanges among the nations through trade will strengthen the economic interdependence of the nations, relieve national prejudice, and form fair observers among the nations. At the same time, Smith pointed out that trade can often
be a means of a nationʼs survival strategy or power expansion strategy, and in thatcase, trade can also be a source of discord and hostility.
In(1776), he wrote that ”it is not from the benevolence ofthe butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their interest.”, and insisted that pursuing self-interest is more efficient andincreases social total interest. In his discussion of the division of labor, Smith argues
that the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange is part of human nature, and opposes closed mercantilism and recommends open free trade.
How do we understand the difference between the theory of The Wealth of Nations (selfishness) and the theory of Moral Sentiments (altruism)? This is today
called the Adam Smith-problem. To answer this question, we will consider the duality of information, taking FuXiʼs divination as an example.

Protectionism and Free Trade: From the Perspective of Duality of Information

ⅢFuXiʼs Divination and Duality of Information
In the first place, humanity did not have letters, mathematics and religion fromthe beginning. Villages and cities were formed after people gathered in large river
basins and began to engage in agriculture. Information exchange tools were necessary for the operation of such organizations.
Fu Xi, the representative ancestor of the Yellow River civilization, expressed
the movement of nature and its circulation law as a vary pattern of two elements ofYin and Yang. The villagers received a message from Fu Xi that it would rain tomorrow when they saw the sign ☵ carved on the large tree in front of Fu Xiʼshouse. In other words, based on tacit knowledge received from natural signals, Fu
Xi used the symbol “☵” to convey the semantic information that “it will rain tomorrow” to the villagers.
A message has no value to only the sender alone. When the user is present, theinformation finally begins to make sense.
In order for the sender and the user to communicate with each other, somekind of common recognition tool is required. And in order to eliminate ambiguity,
the tool had to take the form of formal logic (Law of identity, Law of contradiction,
Law of excluded middle).
In other words, in order to convey the semantic information received from nature, Fu Xi formalized the semantic information using binary logical symbols suchas divination and shared the information as formal information.
In this way, semantic information is formalized in the form of characters andsymbols, which are fixed in the form of a manual or a computer program. Therefore,
semantic information finally becomes formal information with generality apart fromindividuality and specificity.
In other words, the information we use in common sense is formal information,
which is essentially compressed semantic information shared using logic tools.
When formal information and knowledge are systematized, it becomes academic, and it has the strength of universality and certainty, but it inherently has
limitations to eliminate semantic information of uncertainty which has a potential
for creative destruction.
Therefore, about 1500 years ago, Bodhi Dharma left us with the following Zen長崎県立大学論集（経営学部・地域創造学部） 第 巻 第 号

words: Spiritual awakening cannot be experienced with words and letters; Spiritualenlightenment can be attained only by means of communion of mind with mind.
Formal logic such as language and symbols were developed for human interaction, ethnicity was formed based on such formal language, and nations were formed.

Ⅳ

Bergson and Elan Vital (the leap of life)
Henri, Bergson (1932) said there are two aspects of information: open semantic

information and closed formal information. There are also two attributes of life information: a desire for a closed instinct to maintain oneʼs survival and an open instinct for trying to interact with others.
Morality mandated by instinct for social cohesion gives rise to family-love andpatriotism, but at the same time it becomes exclusive to other societies, so it is inevitably a closed society. Bergson saw that life has not only the desire for selfpreservation but also the creative nature of Elan Vital (the leap of life), and that
opens up the possibility of an open society.
Trade friction arises from the aspect of self-preservation desire, and free tradecomes from another instinct called Elan Vital.

ⅤBAKA no KABE (Stupid Wall) and ZEN (Bodhi Dharma)
2400 years ago Plato pointed out that humans are prisoners living in caves, andTakeshi Yoro (2003), an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, stated thathumans live inside the stupid wall.
During the Renaissance, Raffaello Santi drew a picture of “,” anddemonstrated that Aristotle and Platoʼs doctrines are an inseparable relationshipbetween knowledge (Downward: formal information) and wisdom (Upward: semantic information). Prof. Takuo Dome (2016) of Osaka University expressed his understanding of the Adam Smith-problem using the Figure 2. Through Figure 2 we canunderstand that selfishness and altruism are relationship of non-duality.
The US-China, Japan-Korea trade friction is an inevitable result of the unequal
development of the world economy, which is natural.

Protectionism and Free Trade: From the Perspective of Duality of Information

Figure 1:

Source: http://blog.livedoor.jp/art̲history/archives/49954836.html

Trade friction will increase the competitiveness of private companies in bothcountries, and both economies will grow together.
Mercantilism and liberalism are two aspects on the front and back of the samecoin, that is, the relationship of Fuji (Non-duality under Buddhist law).
The problem is that governments artificially stir up nationalism for their own
political interests.
Then what should we do? The answer is simple and clear. To continue the East
Asia Forum. Through dialogue we can break the stupid wall of “Dia+Logue.”長崎県立大学論集（経営学部・地域創造学部） 第 巻 第 号

Figure 2: Frequency of sympathy and Order of attachment

World
Organization/
RegionCountry
Attachment tothe community

FamilySelf
Universal-love
Family-loveLocal-loveFriend/Colleague/
Neighbor

Motherland-loveSibling
ForeignerFrequency of sympathy

Source: Nikkei morning edition. August, 10, 2016. pp.28.

References
Henri, Bergson.

. [1932]. Translated by R. Ashley Au-dra and Cloudesley Brereton, University of Notre Dame Press 1977.
Smith, Adam.
Smith, Adam.
Takeshi Yoro.
Takuo Dome.
2016. pp.28.

. [1759]. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006.
. [1776]. Create Space Independent Pub, 2014.
（バカの壁）, [2003]. Shinchosha（新潮社）.
, [2016]. Nikkei morning edition. August, 10,