Tosaka Jun and the epistemic functions of culture: materials for a study on transhistoricity and collective identities

Abstract

The work of the Japanese philosopher Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) remains very unknown, both in the framework of Japanese studies and in the philosophical field. And this, despite the importance of his reflections for the yesterday to which he belonged, and our present time that is being resignified, in part, with the residual materials of the last century. Within his philosophically polyphonic project, Tosaka endeavored to clarify the relationships between cultural nationalism, capitalism, totalitarianism and everyday life. This essay aims to present his figure among Spanish-speaking readers and scholars and invite them to weigh critically the value of some of his reflections to our challenges today. To achieve such purposes, some essential lines of his thought will be analyzed in order to clarify how cultural notions crystallize, what gears are used by reactionary ideologies for the mobilization of the social mass and their broken dreams or the mechanism behind the translation movement of the academic world and the mass media, issues that will lead to a final reflection on transhistoricity, and the returned mythologization of collective identities.