What makes life worth living? : how Japanese and Americans make sense of their worlds

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mathews, Gordon, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social values--Japan.

Social values.

Quality of life--Japan.

Quality of life.

Social values--United States.

Quality of life--United States.

Conduct of life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 p.)

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] University of California Press 1996

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Here is an original and provocative anthropological approach to the fundamental philosophical question of what makes life worth living. Gordon Mathews considers this perennial issue by examining nine pairs of similarly situated individuals in the United States and Japan. In the course of exploring how people from these two cultures find meaning in their daily lives, he illuminates a vast and intriguing range of ideas about work and love, religion, creativity, and self-realization.Mathews explores these topics by means of the Japanese term ikigai, "that which most makes one's life seem worth living." American English has no equivalent, but ikigai applies not only to Japanese lives but to American lives as well. Ikigai is what, day after day and year after year, each of us most essentially lives for.Through the life stories of those he interviews, Mathews analyzes the ways Japanese and American lives have been affected by social roles and cultural vocabularies. As we approach the end of the century, the author's investigation into how the inhabitants of the world's two largest economic superpowers make sense of their lives brings a vital new understanding to our skeptical age.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Part One. The Cultural Foundations of Ikigai

Introduction: What Makes Life Worth Living?

Chapter One. The Varieties of Ikigai in Japan

Chapter Two. Individualism, Community, and Conformity in the United States

Chapter Three. The Comparison of Japanese and American Selves

Part Two. Ikigai in Japanese and American Lives

Chapter Four. Ikigai in Work and Family

Chapter Five. Ikigai in Past and Future

Chapter Six. Ikigai in Creation and Religion

Part Three. Ikigai and the Meaning of Life

Chapter Seven. A Phenomenological Analysis of Ikigai

Chapter Eight. Ikigai and the Meaning of Life

References

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-520-91647-6

0-585-28509-8

OCLC:

1419789605