Philosophy

The primary aim of IJRC is to create new knowledge, a process that comes under the purview of the field of epistemology, a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The present cross-cultural (Indo-Japanese) context makes it imperative to pursue knowledge creation at the confluence of Indo-Japanese thought or philosophies, principles, and values, exploring differences, distinctions, and commonalities, while assimilating all that helps in creating new knowledge that is distinct and contextually relevant. In this regard, the arts, and aesthetics, unique to each culture, becomes the very grist to the mill of knowledge creation in the Indo-Japanese cross-cultural context. Furthermore, apart from imparting the very identity to IJRC, exploration of ideas from the arts and aesthetics in creating new knowledge remains in line with the contention that art is the avenue to the highest knowledge available to humans, a kind of knowledge that remains unattainable through other means. IJRC intends to imbibe this philosophy with critical openness (discussed subsequently).

Critical Openness – The criteria of critical openness, refers to one’s ability to embrace and absorb all that is foreign (or new) without losing one’s identity, acknowledging all the while that there may be something to learn from things (herein, culture, philosophies, principles, and values) that are foreign or new. Critical openness, however, needs to be complemented with the wherewithal to assimilate different (sometimes divergent) perspectives. That mechanism is provided by dialectics, as discussed below.

Dialectics – Dialectics, a philosophical perspective or a method of philosophical argument, or a method of intellectual investigation that deals with contradictions or opposites in ultimately finding the truth (through knowledge ). In this context, particularly, Hegel’s (see G. W. F. Hegel) Aufhebung (the simultaneous destruction and creation of valid structures, resulting in the creation of new ideas ) will help in the aforementioned process of new knowledge creation. In this way, IJRC will foster, nurture, and uphold the spirit of debate and constructive deliberations in all its activities, with critical openness (discussed above). The incorporation of the arts and aesthetics in characterizing IJRC underscores this very spirit, given that the instrumentality of the arts and aesthetics in knowledge creation, in itself, has long been debated.