Research Agenda

Project 3: Religion and Humanism

Fundamental questions such as "What is religion?" and "What is the purpose of religion?" are discussed from a humanistic viewpoint. Work on this project has been published in IOP's Collection of Theses Vol. 1, 1999, as Shukyo to hymanizumu (Religion and Humanism).

This project also inquires into the relationship between the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism and the "theory" of human rights. Its chief concern is "How does the concept of Buddha nature, dependent origination and karma contribute to the modern idea of human rights?" To clarify this, the relation between Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist commentators, as well as early Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, are also examined.

Results of the study have been presented in IOP's English journal The Journal of Oriental Studies Vol. 9, 1999, titled "Buddhism and Human Rights: Points of Convergence" by Toru Shiotsu (The Japanese version was first printed in IOP's Japanese journal Toyo gakujutsu kenkyu Vol. 37, 1998)