La historia de la filosofí a occidental empezó a conocerse en Japón ha

ce poco más de cien años, con la apertura general del país en 1859, des
pués de dos siglos de aislamiento del mundo exterior. El interés por las
ideas occidentales que habían permanecido candentes durante el domi
nio del sistema feudal cobró vida de nuevo y con gran pasión. Como
símbolo del cambio se inauguró en seguida un proyecto para traducir,
aunque fueran mal asimilados, más de 30.000 «clásicos)} de la literatura oc
cidental, y en 1862 el primer grupo de dieciséis estudiantes jóvenes fue
enviado a estudiar a Europa3• Algunos de los que se concentraron en el
estudio de la filosofía se sintieron atraídos por las corrientes del neokan
tismo y neo
hegelianismo, mientras otros se encaminaron al estudio de la
filosofía griega, medieval y moderna. A partir de 1877, algunos profe �o
res europeos fueron invitados a enseñar en las universidades de Japón. De
esta manera, las ideas filosóficas de Occidente llamaron la atención de la
generación joven del nuevo Japón. Pensadores budistas ansiosos de «mo
dernizar» su pensamiento fueron de los primeros en volver sobre la tradi
ción intelectual japonesa a la luz de estos acontecimientos.

There is here a curious contrast with the generation of William James. In a

variety of ways, the Pragmatists really were a most remarkable and paradoxical
success story. No one who reads James can have any doubts about the fact that
he very self-consciously, deliberately set out to create a philosophy that was not
merely valid, but also distinctively American. The Anglo-Hegelian metaphysics to
which he was reacting may have been suitable enough for ‘the more studious
members of our protestant ministry’, but it was unusable not merely for the
‘Rocky Mountain toughs’, but also for those who, like James, liked to think
they combined the virtues both of Boston and of Cripple Creek. The Middle
Way was also to be an American way. What is so remarkable is that James and
the Pragmatists succeeded in providing a philosophy tailor-made for the
specifications which they themselves believed that the American scene imposed.
This is so impressive because, generally speaking, ideologies can not be
successfully manufactured to order and to specification. Synthetic faiths
generally just fail to take off. Ideological inspiration and social need must
normally meet, if they meet at all, in an unplanned, unselfconscious, careless
rapture. But James and his generation, despite their self-conscious awareness of
what they were doing, did succeed, and to this very day, a visitor to America,
when inquiring after the rationale of various institutions which surround him,
notably in the field of education, will often find himself referred to the teaching
of the Pragmatists.
Given this great and rapid success of what was virtually the Founding Father