In Closing: How to Live in a Society Organized Around the Division of Labor

Abstract

This book has examined the social science of Yoshihiko Uchida over five chapters. Starting with civil society, we have looked at his arguments on capitalism and academic inquiry, as well as the theories of on Smith’s, Marx, and Kawakami. Uchida’s theories are based on a unique way of thinking about the division of labor, and, in this last chapter, I will briefly touch on the implications, which will reveal how Uchida learns from and goes beyond Smith in contemporary society. In other words, while Smith brilliantly explained that “the division of labor enriches the economic society,” the question for Uchida was, “How can the division of labor enrich human society?” (Sect. 6.1). Although the division of labor has brought about an abundance of material wealth, it has also created partial human beings, deepened the materialization and quantification of human beings, and caused people to lose the ability to see each living person as a whole. In this sense, the division of labor has led to the impoverishment of human beings and society (Sect. 6.2). Uchida thinks that the division of labor can truly enrich human society only when science and society are based on the absolute weight of the fact that each individual is alive. He believes that this is what the theory of division of labor teaches in its essence and that such a theory of division of labor should form the basis of social science (Sect. 6.3).