Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science (Nissan Institute/Routledge Jap) [Hardcover]

David Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0415111307 | ISBN-13: 978-0415111300 | Edition: annotated edition

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an ambitious, controversial, ground-breaking and timely book...Its overrriding interest and importance, however, lies in its thesis, which is that the historical experience of Japan in the period since it embarked on 'modernization' illuminates, perhaps better than any other passage in modern history, the limitations and deformation of Western social theory..
–John Gray, Jesus College, Oxford

This is an intellectually powerful polemic in the tradition of Francis Fukuyama's End of History, which is in fact one of William's several targets. His main target is the formalism and Eurocentrism of what most American universities call the social sciences.... This book will have great influence in the groves of academe but we recommend it to all who are interested in how our world is changing.
–Chalmers Johnson, Kiriyama Pacific Rim Foundation

About the Author

David Williams is Senior Research Fellow in Japanese Politics at the School of East Asian Studies, The University of Sheffield. He is the author of Japan: Beyond the End of History (Routledge, 1994.)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; annotated edition edition (December 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415111307
• ISBN-13: 978-0415111300
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting dabbles, August 17, 2001

By 

Nichomachus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science (Nissan Institute/Routledge Jap) (Hardcover)

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It deserves three-and-a-half stars. On the one hand we have a fascinating polemic touching on all the essential realms of modern thought. On the other hand, we have a political indictment that suffers from an excess in name dropping and citation packing along with an untamed fascination with Edward Said.

At whatever measure, the book is provocative in a number of ways. It really only has to do with Japan on its periphery. In reality, it (fleetingly) touches on Japan's political uniqueness and its (slight) place in the history of thought in the grand scheme of an indictment of logical positivism/economic rationalism in the social sciences. At times an impassioned defense of the empirical method, and the 'changeableness' of truth; at other times the book takes on an almost 'ad hominem' tone towards rationalism to the detriment of the work as a whole. The book contributes, in my opinion, a valuable critique of the social sciences, and attempts to defend political science methodology from the positivism of political economy.

Williams ranges from Kant, to Marx, to Said, to Saussere, to Chomsky, to Nietzsche, to Mill, to Foucault, to Francis Ford Coppola, to Alan Bloom, to Dewey, etcetera, etcetera. He pulls off this journey at times, with interesting insight into the place of thought in social science disciplines. Other times, however, he becomes enmired in demonstrating how many different thinkers he can namedrop in a paragraph.

It could be a good book (maybe only as a reference) for an intermediate course in scientific method and/or the history of philosophy. It is almost a compendium of philosophical positions. Although he slants his descriptions of some schools of thought, he is good at presenting arguments undermining many dogmatic perspectives. His critique of structuralism, post-structuralism, and political correctness is excellent. His chapter on linguistics is a little garbled, but interesting nonetheless.

At the beginning is a glossary that is useful for understanding Williams' position, although the definitions are almost comically self-serving. He is relentless in his citations, with a large section of endnotes. Helpfully, he includes a bibliography of all the works cited.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Polemical racism is still racism, September 28, 2011

By 

Anon "BP" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies) (Paperback)

This is a right wing attack by a right wing author. This is an author who minimizes Japanese' hideous crimes in the interest, as in the mode of Ishihara and other latter day absurd rightist politicians, of Japanese exertion of its right to assume a paternalist role in Asia while committing outrageous violence. In the process, he repeatedly instrumentalizes Japanese murder and assaultive crimes against Korea and China. It's excusable in the author's eyes, to support your country in its moment of extreme crisis. Minimize and disregard that the "extreme crisis" was one of all-out assault and mass murder. Grotesque.