Il dibattito sulla modernità nel Giappone postbellico e l’essenzialismo nichilistico di Takeuchi Yoshimi

Abstract

The article analyzes the role played by the sinologist and intellectual Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977) in the post-World war II debate on modernity in Japan. It argues that Takeuchi’s contribution to the debate lies in the challenge that his distinctive theorization of modernity posed to the universalistic assumptions underpinning the discourse on modernity in postwar years. It also suggests that Takeuchi’s essentialistic nihilism prevented his thought from becoming a viable alternative to the dominant paradigms of modernity proposed by “modernist” and marxist intellectuals, as well as by the “theory of modernization” advocates.