ABSTRACT
The two greatest dangers posed by Western social science to the sound understanding of modern Japan are positivist procrustianism and empirical hyperfactualization. Positivism has evolved a set of scientific laws which may distort the truth; empiricism legitimates a search for factual knowledge which is in principle unending and thus subversive of any conclusion that the researcher might draw. That Kant judged the thrust towards positivist tyranny and empirical anarchy as the defining impulses of European science only underscores the crucial nature of the problem at issue. In this chapter, the challenge of positivist procrustianism will be confronted.
