Épistémologie à la japonaise: Kanamori Osamu and the history and philosophy of science in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the history of science makes its “global turn,” it has become ever more vital to pluralize the geography of its theoretical voices. This article takes up the challenge by introducing Anglophone scholars to the work of the late Kanamori Osamu (1954-2016), a major force in the introduction of French épistémologie and SSK (Sociology of Scientific Knowledge) to Japan. Centered around a review of three volumes edited by Kanamori shortly before his death, I explore Kanamori’s approach to the history of science as a philosophical critique of reason, and his championing of eclecticism in the face of mounting presentism and policy-oriented studies of science in Japan. From here, I consider the barriers facing the translation of modern Japanese scientific thought into English. Finally, I signal three overlooked arenas where future collaboration between Anglophone historians of science and historians of scientific thought in Japan might flourish: in rethinking the status of gender; in drawing new epistemic maps of premodern Eurasia; in outlining the processes behind the construction of a shared Asian modernity.