Year: 1980
Type: article
Abstract: “Modernization ” is a concept created in an effort to cope intellectually with a diffuse bundle of sociocultural phenom ena by systematizing them vaguely under a single heading. It would be the height of naivete to suppose that this fuzzy concept corresponds to an extra-conceptual, objective reality. Yet this is precisely what has happened. The struggles of a host of eminent scholars dealing with “Changing concepts of the modernization of Japan，’ ， summa rized by J. W. Hall (Jansen 1965, esp. pp. 8-11)，may serve to illustrate how taken-for-granted it has become even in the academic world to put the cart of concepts before the real, live horse. By doing so in this case, social scientists pay tribute to unscientific, everyday use of language. People have been talking about the “modernization of Japan ” for years. The concept conveys an air of solidity. It seems to deal with something real. But does it? The concept of “secularization ” confronts us with a similar difficulty. Here too repeated uses of the term, even when these uses are mutually contradictory, almost lead us to believe that it has as its referent something “out there. ” But does it? In order to explore this problem, I propose to begin by investigating the origins of these concepts. Environment of origin. The historicity of “modernization” and “secularization ” is twofold. First, both terms are con ceptual products of a definite historical period within a definite cultural sphere, namely, the European. They are applied worldwide today primarily as a result of the broaden Japanese Journal o f Religious Studies 7/1 March 1980 7
Author: Max Eger
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2977320497