Fukuzawa Yukichi: Civilization

Fukuzawa Yukichi was Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University. Explore interesting quotes on civilization.
Fukuzawa Yukichi: 24   quotes 16   likes

“Therefore, to teach them [women] at least an outline of economics and law is the first requirement after giving them a general education. Figuratively speaking, it will be like providing the women of civilized society with a pocket dagger for self-protection.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi

From Fukuzawa Yukichi on Japanese Women (1988), trans. Kiyooka Eiichi.

Women , Education , Law

“In its broad sense, civilization means not only comfort in daily necessities but also the refining of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue so as to elevate human life to a higher plane”

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Bunmeiron no Gairyaku [An Outline of a Theory of civilization] (1875).
Context: In its broad sense, civilization means not only comfort in daily necessities but also the refining of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue so as to elevate human life to a higher plane... It refers to the attainment of both material well-being and the elevation of the human spirit, [but] since what produces man’s well-being and refinement is knowledge and virtue, civilization ultimately means the progress of man’s knowledge and virtue.

Life , Knowledge , Sense

“Seen in this light, civilization is an open-ended process. We cannot be satisfied with the present level of attainment of the West.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Bunmeiron no Gairyaku [An Outline of a Theory of Civilization] (1875).
Context: Robbery and murder are the worst of human crimes; but in the West there are robbers and murderers. There are those who form cliques to vie for the reins of power and who, when deprived of that power, decry the injustice of it all. Even worse, international diplomacy is really based on the art of deception. Surveying the situation as a whole, all we can say is that there is a general prevalence of good over bad, but we can hardly call the situation perfect. When, several thousand years hence, the levels of knowledge and virtue of the peoples of the world will have made great progress (to the point of becoming utopian), the present condition of the nations of the West will surely seem a pitifully primitive stage. Seen in this light, civilization is an open-ended process. We cannot be satisfied with the present level of attainment of the West.

Light

“Moreover, the argument for national polity, for Christianity, and for Confucianism… are also insufficient to bolster people’s hearts. What, then, will? I say there is one thing: namely, to establish our goal and advance toward civilization… The way in which to preserve this independence cannot be sought anywhere except in civilization.”

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Bunmeiron no Gairyaku [An Outline of a Theory of civilization] (1875).

People , Way , Heart