Katsumori Makoto -  Panel 16  ENOJP Paris
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2018-03-05

“Hiromatsu on the Valid and the Prevalenty”
— Katsumori Makoto, Akita University

In his radical extension of the Marxian critique of reification to an analysis of the phenomenal world in general, Hiromatsu Wataru  松渉 (1933–94) develops an account of how meanings and values (such as truth, justice, and so on) subsist only as relational, intersubjective moments of phenomena and are thus historically and socially relative. At the same time, he cautions against any move—starting from this relativity of values—to justify the acceptance of the values that are actually intersubjectively shared. With the aim of overcoming this “conservatism,” he introduces a quasi-Kantian distinction between the two concepts, the “valid” (妥当的 gültig) and the “prevalent” (通用的 geltend): A value as it is espoused on the level of the quid juris is called valid, while a value as it is actually accepted in the sense of the quid facti is called
prevalent. According to Hiromatsu, one is able to challenge the prevalent value and to counterpose to it a different, valid value. He makes, however, a further, complex point: Not only are prevalent values intersubjectively accepted, but valid values are—though commonly misconceived as objective and self-contained—
also “warranted” solely by their becoming actually intersubjectively accepted. This is to say that valid values “must become” prevalent values. For Marxist philosopher Hiromatsu, this constitutes a crucial link connecting his philosophical thought with the dimension of social—and particularly social-revolutionary—practice. Notwithstanding its philosophical and ideological significance, however, Hiromatsu’s account of the valid and the
prevalent proves to have difficulties both intra-theoretically and in its practical implications. First, there arises the question of whether his viewpoint allows of the values that are characterized by their very resistance to becoming prevalent.
Specifically, his theory can hardly deal with the paradox that the value of ‘singularity’ is both realized and invalidated by its becoming intersubjectively shared. Second, while breaking with the conservatism of accepting the status quo, Hiromatsu’s view that the valid value is warranted by its becoming prevalent implies a kind of future-oriented conformism. In other words, his vision of social change orients itself toward a replacement of the existing intersubjective conformity by another, rather than toward a radical critique of the very structure of intersubjective conformity.


This talk took place at the 3rd Conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy in Paris, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris 1) and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) from November 2-4, 2017.

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