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together on the one and same globe: symbiosis with environmental circumstances
for living together with others. In the twenty-first century, we must conceive an
environmental philosophy to account for a triple set of circumstances: namely,
(1) nature, (2) technology, and (3) traditional and historical cultural circumstances.
10.1.1 Nature
Nature itself was a friend of humanity in many ways. We can look for the way of
symbiosis with nature. For example, the Chinese theory of art has had great influence
on Japanese artistic activities. According to the Chinese aesthetician, Cho Gen-en (
張
彦遠
) in his
品等論
(which means the theory of judgment on the value of works of
art), the first and most important principle is “to express Chi (
気
) in nature, a vivid
expression of power or energy in natural things”. And another aesthetician Wan-wei
(
王維
) said that, in depicting a landscape, painters must express the Chi of the
mountain, not necessarily the exact appearance of the mountain. This means that
the artist must harmonize with nature. It is different from the European idea of
representation or mimesis. But we Japanese recognized that nature sometimes revolts
against human beings. Looking at videos or documentary films of the tsunami
carefully, we found the approach of waves was so quick and the surface and inner
movements of the water crashed and moved in contradictory ways. We felt the
immense power or energy in the inner movement of the awesome, disastrous tsunami.
10.1.2 Technology
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1974), wrote that technology as the embodiment of logic and
technology itself is originally good (bien), but he indicated that, if human beings
were to become functions of a systematized technology, they would become
subhuman (sous-humaine). And he said that modernized technology may easily
become an idol and, as the result, make technologist himself an idol (autolaˆtrie),
because he could create such splendid technology. But with the nuclear accident
following the earthquake and tsunami, we recognized that the forefront of technol-
ogy could never have been controlled. And the hydrogen explosions in the nuclear
facilities in Fukushima occurred contrary to our common sense concerning arti-
facts. We could not predict what might happen.
10.1.3 Culture
Every people on one and the same planet has its own culture. Culture itself is an
important axis related to its past, present, and future. Every culture has its historical
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