Mita Sekisuke

Mita Sekisuke ( Japanese 見 田 石 介 ; born April 23, 1906 , Shimane Prefecture ; † August 9, 1975 ), later also Amakasu Sekisuke ( 甘 粕 石 介 ), was a Japanese philosopher and economist .

Life

In 1927 Mita began studying philosophy at the University of Kyoto , and came into contact with the philosopher Tosaka Jun . In the second half of the 30s he joined Tosaka's materialist study group founded in 1932 ( Yuibutsuron Kenkyūkai ), which was one of the last bastions of left intellectuals. At that time Mita wrote a book on art ( 芸 術 論 , Geijutsuron , literally: "Art theory") and one on Hegel ( ヘ ー ゲ ル 哲学 へ の 道 , Hēgeru tetsugaku e no michi , "Road to Hegel's philosophy"). From January 1940, he spent one year in prison under the Public Security Act . After the war, he led disputes with the idealistic philosophers Nishida Kitarō and Tanabe Hajime and was involved in organizations of the Communist Party of Japan . In 1952 he became a professor at Osaka Municipal University , where his focus of interest shifted away from philosophy and towards political economy , with his philosophical background influencing his considerations. At that time, Mita changed his last name to Amakasu. Works of this later period deal, for example, with science ( 科学 論 , Kagakuron , “philosophy of science”) and the method of Marxian capital ( 資本 論 の 方法 , Shihon-ron no hōhō , “method of 'capital'”).

Works (selection)

• The Method of Capital . Translation from: Mita Sekisuke chosaku-shū (Selected Works of Sekisuke Mita) vol. 4 (1977)

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Mita is the family name, Sekisuke the first name.