ABSTRACT
Reason or emotion? Science or poetry? Universalism or uniqueness? Ethics or identity? Markets or networks? The individual or the group? Conscience or nation? Sense or sensibility? Friend or foe? Every Western student of Japan must take a stand on the central divide that defines Japanology not only as a way of thinking but also as a way of being in the world. Viewed against the great sweep of European history, the fundamental choice is between the universal imperatives of the Age of Reason and the species claims of European Romanticism. To take sides in this great debate is to reveal the basic assumptions that govern how one teaches, what one reads and why one writes.2
