What Makes Life Worth Living?: How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their WorldsUniversity of California Press, 1996/04/05 - 296 ページ Here is an original and provocative anthropological approach to the fundamental philosophical question of what makes life worth living. Gordon Mathews considers this perennial issue by examining nine pairs of similarly situated individuals in the United States and Japan. In the course of exploring how people from these two cultures find meaning in their daily lives, he illuminates a vast and intriguing range of ideas about work and love, religion, creativity, and self-realization. Mathews explores these topics by means of the Japanese term ikigai, "that which most makes one's life seem worth living." American English has no equivalent, but ikigai applies not only to Japanese lives but to American lives as well. Ikigai is what, day after day and year after year, each of us most essentially lives for. Through the life stories of those he interviews, Mathews analyzes the ways Japanese and American lives have been affected by social roles and cultural vocabularies. As we approach the end of the century, the author's investigation into how the inhabitants of the world's two largest economic superpowers make sense of their lives brings a vital new understanding to our skeptical age. |
目次
3 | |
The Varieties of Ikigai in Japan | 12 |
Individualism Community and Conformity in the United States | 27 |
The Comparison of Japanese and American Selves | 41 |
Ikigai in Japanese and American Lives | 55 |
Ikigai in Work and Family | 57 |
Ikigai and Gender | 94 |
Ikigai in Past and Future | 106 |
Ikigai in Creation and Religion | 155 |
Ikigai and Significance | 193 |
Ikigai and the Meaning of Life | 205 |
A Phenomenological Analysis of Ikigai | 207 |
Ikigai and the Meaning of Life | 232 |
257 | |
271 | |
Ikigai and Dreams | 144 |
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accounts Ainu Ameri Americans I interviewed ancestor worship ancestors Asahi Bank Asano-san become believe calligraphy chapter child commitment to group conceptions of ikigai cultural conceptions death discussed divorce Eliot emphasis employees faith father feel find ikigai find their ikigai Frank Lorenzo future gender gender roles happy human husband ikigai dreams ikigai negotiation individual Isaacs ittaikan Japa Japan Japanese and Americans Japanese women jiko jitsugen kids Kinoshita-san larger meaning marriage married mass media metanarratives Miyamoto-san mother Murakami-san Murakami-sensei Nakajima-san nese never parents percent Pete Murray Pratt pursuit question rakugo reality realize religion religious belief role seek seems self-realization sense shaped shift shodo significance social world society Sōka Gakkai spouse Takagi-san talk tells there's things tion told transcendent Tucker United Wada-san Weiss What's wife woman worry worth living writes Yamamoto-san young