Skvortsova, E. L. Japanese Spiritual Tradition from the Point of View of the ‘Physical Mind’ Problem

Abstract: The subject under research is one of the typical features of Japanese mentality when the ‘here and now’ integral knowledge of the world is thought to be at least as important as the textual knowledge or even more important than that. Quite often we see the following type of knowledge in the artistic tradition: the concept of the creative act (as the integration of the act into dynamics of the world continuum) and the method of teaching (as a direct transfer of knowledge from a teacher to his follower not only about profession but also about the sincere life). The concept of ‘true knowledge’ was inherited by Japanese people from Ancient China. In IV century B. C. Zhuang Zhou outlined the two ‘steps’ of indirect, physically established knowledge of the world: at the first step the knowledge of the world is formed by an infant who does not distinguish himself from the other world, at the second step the knowledge of the world is formed by a professional who has a self-identity and has undergone a long training. In both cases human acts spontaneously (‘naturally’) based on his self-assurance that his actions are the right ones. This aspect of knowledge became the focus of research interest both in Russia and abroad. In particular, in Russia the poet Vasily Zhukovsky and the writer Lev Tolstoy paid their attention at such ‘here and now’ knowledge of the world. The German philosopher Eugen Herrigel devoted many years of his life to improving the balance between mind and body in kyudo – Japanese marital art of archery. Eugen Herrigel wrote two books about it. The philosopher Michael Polanyi also devoted his ‘Personal Knowledge’ to that topic. In our country the mind and body problem was studied by L. Pugacheva and V. Podoroga. In her research the author has used the comparative method as one of the main research methods used in the humanities. The author has compared the Western epistemological tradition which is focused on the impersonal textual knowledge indifferent to the somatic nature of human and typical Far Eastern tradition which views the holistic non-utilitarian (esthetical) knowledge of the world and human to be the basic initial and therefore the ‘true’ knowledge. Holistic, physically embodied esthetical aspect of knowledge was before the textual knowledge historically. Up to the 10th century the Far Eastern tradition has been underlying the initial and true nature of such knowledge. However, we should also keep in mind that the textual knowledge providing a static and schematic description of the world comes first logically: in order to understand the dynamic aspect of knowledge, it is necessary to take the observer’s position. The scientific novelty of the research is in the author’s applying findings of the Western and Russian epistemological scientists to the mentality of Far Eastern counties.

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