Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The ethics in Japanese information society: Consideration on Francisco Varela’s The Embodied Mind from the perspective of fundamental informatics

  • Published:
Ethics and Information Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The ethics in an information society is discussed from the combined viewpoint of Eastern and Western thoughts. The breakdown of a coherent self threatens the Western ethics and causes nihilism. Francisco Varela, one of the founders of Autopoiesis Theory, tackled this problem and proposed Enactive Cognitive Science by introducing Buddhist middle-way philosophy. Fundamental Informatics gives further insights into the problem, by proposing the concept of a hierarchical autopoietic system. Here the ethics can be described in relation to a community rather than a coherent self. The philosophical bridge between East and West is expected to solve the ethical aporia in the 21st century.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. R.A. Brooks, Intelligence without Representation, MIT Artificial Intelligence Report, 1987

  2. Dreyfus H.L. 1979. What Computers Can’t Do: The Limits of Artificial Intelligence (revised edition). Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  3. Maturana H.R., Varela F.J. 1980. Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. D. Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht (Holland) and Boston

    Google Scholar 

  4. Nishigaki T. 2004. Kiso Jôhô-gaku: Seimei kara Shakai e (Fundamental Informatics: From Life to Society). NTT Publishing, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  5. Varela F.J., Thompson E., Rosch E. 1991. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. MIT Press, Cambridge Mass

    Google Scholar 

  6. Winograd T., Flores F. 1986. Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design. Ablex, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

A previous version of this paper was presented at the international conference on “Information Ethics: Agents, Artifacts and New Cultural Perspectives” (Oxford University, UK, 8-9 December, 2005). I wish to thank the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs for sponsoring the conference. I also thank the staff of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics for their helpful arrangements.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Toru Nishigaki

Authors
  1. Toru Nishigaki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toru Nishigaki.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nishigaki, T. The ethics in Japanese information society: Consideration on Francisco Varela’s The Embodied Mind from the perspective of fundamental informatics. Ethics Inf Technol 8, 237–242 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-006-9115-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-006-9115-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation