Universities as Institutes of Cosmological Principles（宇宙原理の講究所としての大学）

Background

This is a passage from a speech Jo Neesima delivered in the hall of Chion- in Temple in Kyoto, appealing to prominent political and businesspersons and newspaper reporters about the need to establish a private university. After listing science, chemistry, philosophy, theology, sociology, economics, political science, and jurisprudence as important studies for the development of a country, he then positions the universities as institutes of cosmological principles. In the following year (1889), he wrote a draft titled “On the Call for Funds for the Establishment of Doshisha University” (CWJN, Vol. 1, p. 148) and “The Main Purpose of Establishing the University” (CWJN, Vol. 1, p. 151, a copy by Soho Tokutomi’s secretary), in which he stated, “The university will have various departments, including literature, law, science and medicine.” In addition, the phrase “Monsters like dragons and snakes are born in deep forests and large lakes” is used to describe the ideal vision of the university, which is to make Doshisha like “the deep forests and large lakes.” “The institute of cosmological principles” and “the deep forests and large lakes” were keywords that expressed Neesima’s ideal of the university.
　When Neesima used the word “universe,” he meant the world created by God. For example, in describing how he first became acquainted with the Christian term “Heavenly Father,” Neesima wrote, “I became acquainted with the name of the Creator through those Dutch books I studied before, but it never came home so dear to my heart as when I read the simple story of God’s creation of the universe on those pages of a brief Chinese Bible History” (“My Younger Days,” JNA p. 53–54). On his return trip from Europe and the U.S. (1884–1885), where he traveled after launching a group of initiators for founding Doshisha University, he read a book entitled The Unseen Universe: or Physical Speculations on a Future State (B. Stewart and P.G. Tait, Macmillan, London, 1885) with two passengers he met on the ship (“The Second Outward Journey,” JNA, p. 324). This book defies the development of secular modern science in the late 19th century and attempts to explain the existence of a realm outside the observable universe where divine providence operates and the immortality of the spirit through physical theories. Neesima, who studied natural theology as the study of God’s existence and wisdom in Amherst College, was probably trying to understand the world by sensing God’s will in the order and harmony of the natural world.
　“The Intentions for the Establishment of Doshisha University” drafted by Soho Tokutomi states that Christianity is to be the basis of Doshisha University’s moral education (see “The Basis of Moral Education at Doshisha University”). However, there is no mention of Christianity in the drafts of documents written by Neesima himself and presented to Tokutomi (“A Letter to Iichiro Tokutomi,” 1888, LNJ, pp. 246–250), and it is rather emphasized that the school planned by Doshisha should be an ordinary university and not a religious school as people call it (“General Idea for the Establishment of Doshisha University,” 1889, JNE, p. 66). Perhaps Neesima was trying to indicate that Doshisha University was a Christian school through the phrase “universities as institutes of cosmological principles.”
　In Europe and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century, the basic principle of modern geology that “the present is the key to the past” and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution were proposed, and through these, the idea that God’s will was not involved in the formation of the earth and the evolution of living things became widespread. In addition, the founding of Humboldt University of Berlin (1810), which aimed to contribute to the building of a nation-state, triggered the modernization of higher education, known as “the second birth” of the university, which integrated teaching and research, including exercises, experiments, and thesis instruction. The influence of this trend extended to American universities as well, and schools of science or applied science were established at, for example, Harvard and Yale, which were in the lineage of the first generation of universities that emerged in the Middle Ages. Amherst College also allowed students to take courses in geology, mathematics, physics, agriculture, zoology, and other natural sciences apart from the regular course of study, but the purpose of these courses was to demonstrate the principles of natural theology (Nagayasu Shimao, “Joseph Neesima and Natural Sciences” in Soji Kitagaki ed., The World of Joseph Hardy Neesima –From the Point of Eternal Rest 100 Years Ago, 1990).
　After entering Amherst College in 1867, Neesima was able to study natural theology and mathematics as well as chemistry experiments and lectures, physiology and anatomy, botany, physics, geology, and astronomy. Even after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, he continued his interest in geology and attention to the theory of evolution. Words such as “universities as institutes of cosmological principles,” “the source of culture,” and “the foundation of a nation” represent Neesima’s worldview and his thoughts on Japan, which he learned at a time of secularization of natural science and revolution of university education, showing his intention to build a modern university in Japan.

Contemporary Significance

Natural Science and Religious Beliefs

　In the 20th century, modern physics such as field theory and quantum mechanics made great progress, and new discoveries were made one after another regarding the history of the earth and life, and the state of the universe. The birth of the earth and the solar system, as well as the beginning of the universe, which had been considered a mystery, were revealed steadily through research in the natural sciences. Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton explored nature in an attempt to understand God’s intention in creating the world, but today it is no longer believed that “God” is involved in the creation and evolution of the universe. However, it is said that quite a number of scientists involved in cosmology and particle physics believe that “God” exists (Ichiro Sanda, Why Scientists Believe in God: From Copernicus to Hawking, Kodansha Blue Backs, 2008).＜Br> 　We cannot bring the creation of the universe by God as Neesima had in mind into modern natural science. However, science is not a panacea, there are things that science cannot unravel, and scientists can make mistakes. No matter how much science and technology are developed, we should consider that there are areas in the world that are beyond human reach, and that there is something beyond human knowledge (see “The Juxtaposition of Knowledge and Morality”). In this sense, Neesima’s words “institutes for cosmological principles ” and “the deep forests and large lakes” have not lost their significance even today.

Universities Changing with the Times

The dream of establishing Doshisha University did not come true before Neesima’s death. Although the Harris Science School was established in 1890 and the Doshisha School of Political Science and Law in 1891, the establishment of Doshisha University (Faculty of Theology, Political Science and Economics, and English Literature) was not approved by the Vocational Training School Ordinance until 1912. It was in 1920 that Doshisha University was established under the University Ordinance. After more than half a century as a newly established university with six faculties, Doshisha University now developed into a large-size university with 14 faculties and 17 graduate schools. However, as Neesima had determined that the establishment of a university was a project that must be undertaken at all costs, a project that would last 100 years of the nation’s history (“The Intentions for the Establishment of Doshisha University,” JNE, p. 32, 1888), it cannot be said that everything had been completed. Rather, it should be considered that the ideal image of the university continues to change with the times.
　It has been pointed out that Japanese higher education is currently in a state of distress due to “the disproportionate expansion of universities with the population structure” and “delayed response to globalization,” and is about to experience “the second death” of universities, in which “the fundamental idea of what a university is has been lost sight of, and the quality of university education is irreversibly deteriorating” (Toshiya Yoshimi, Where are the Universities?: Blueprint for the Future, Iwanami- shinsho, 2021). When the second-generation universities that have survived in the nation-state of Japan begin to decline, what will the third-generation universities look like that will be needed in the next 100 years? In order to consider what is needed for Doshisha University to develop as a university of the third generation in the future, we must pass on the will of Neesima.

(Akira Hayashida)