ABSTRACT

The central argument of Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science is that Eurocentric blindness is not a moral but a scientific failing. In this wide-ranging critique of Western social science, Anglo-American philosophy and French theory, Williams works on the premise that Japan is the most important political system of our time. He explains why social scientists have been so keen to ignore or denigrate Japan's achievements. If social science is to meet the needs of the `Pacific Century', it requires a sustained act of intellectual demolition and subsequent renewal.

part |2 pages

Part I Japan: the splendour of its prime

chapter 1|12 pages

Japan and the European political canon

chapter 2|32 pages

Where are the masters?

part |2 pages

Part II Japanese greatness and the European inheritance

chapter |2 pages

Science

chapter 3|46 pages

Positivism

chapter 4|43 pages

Empiricism

chapter 5|15 pages

Orientalism

chapter |2 pages

Words

chapter 6|15 pages

Languages

chapter 7|26 pages

Criticism

chapter 8|17 pages

Readers

chapter |2 pages

Thought

chapter 9|12 pages

Philosophies

chapter 10|15 pages

ThinkersThinkers

chapter 11|13 pages

Classics

part |2 pages

Part III On classic ground

chapter |26 pages

Notes

chapter |13 pages

List of works cited