Section 4 : Investigation of the Perspective of Human Beings as an Expression of Life Activities

Program Promoter

While life and death exist on opposite pole, each is dependent upon the existence of the other. In order to position "death," it is necessary to consider the position and meaning of "life." The prominent characteristic of "life" of a human being that stands as the origins of all creation lies in the fact that human beings can engage in sophisticated mental activities such as linguistic activities, cerebration, learning, and cognitive processes. As a result, human beings have developed sophisticated civilizations and societies through these mental activities. These cultivated mental activities are realized through networks of nerve cells that stretch out with complicity and intricacy. Through studies of how these networks process information, I believe that we can understand the mechanisms of these sophisticated mental activities. Furthermore, with these studies, we can provide the framework for examining what human "life" is. From this standpoint, Section Four of the program will incorporate high technology and record thoroughly the nervous and brain activities as manifestation of life activities. Deepening the understanding of cognition, memory, language, and concepts at the level of activities, we aim to examine life in individuals as both physical and metal activity.

The level of behavior outlined above closely relates to consciousness, and many have studied human consciousness through psychology. We must continue to accumulate data from experiments and think through what consciousness is and produce materials that will provide catalyst to consider perspective on death and life from a more inclusive and complex standpoint. In addition, we will explore the possibility of cultural difference by using influential thought in the formulation of the view of human beings as object of our study. The method of perceiving the characteristics of human beings often delves into issues of life and death. One research analysis demonstrates that when a person is placed in a coercive situation, even in cases where a specific action is required, the majority of people fail to take this necessary action once they have learned of a different action one individual took under the same condition. The function of these responsive biases results in the cognition of exaggerated or non-existing "characteristics" of an individual, or collective entities such as citizens or ethnic groups. Furthermore, such perceptions can lead to formulation of distorted cognition, and sometimes affect decisions relating to life and death of human beings.

The understanding of life has a consequence in various aspects of linguistic expressions. For example, questions such as whether the expressing object is regarded as having life or not, particularly whether they are regarded as human beings or not can affect the choice of accidence and sentence structures. There are also examples of expressing natural phenomena and inanimate objects through metaphors of living forms. However, there are numerous ways that language and dialect reflect life, and each situation conceptualizes and institutionalizes life activities differently. It is necessary, then, to excavate as many differing languages/ dialects as possible and demonstrate the reflections of life activities in language comprehensively. We can also expect to find a way to understand differing and particular cultural perspective on human beings, which will then assist in the creation of a new perspective on life.

Furthermore, in this fourth section of the project, we also hope to demonstrate the relationship between understanding life activities as behavioral science and the understanding of life activities as a medical science. There is a tremendous gap in the approaches and levels taken in regard to the issue of "life" in medicine and physiology and in various fields of the humanities. In order to fill in this gap, we hope to utilize a cooperative interdisciplinary approach. As exemplified by the majority of leading research, compared to objectives of natural science that pursues purely technological possibilities, it is necessary for various fields of the humanities to follow and voice their opinions positively based on the historical background of each discipline. Through these aspects of common concern and approaches, we are particularly interested in pursuing joint-research with researchers in the medical field. By boldly approaching and seeking support through interdisciplinary exchanges, we aim to fix our gaze upon contemporary values regarding life.

YOKOSAWA Kazuhiko