Psychological Sociology in the Taisho Era: Shorato Yoneda’s Introduction of F. Giddings and G. Tarde
摘要
Yoneda Shotaro was a sociologist who was active primarily at Kyoto Imperial University from the Meiji era through the pre-war Showa period. Along with Takebe Tongo, he is known as one of the fathers of Japanese sociology. His diverse sociological research is easily apparent through his numerous publications of books and papers on sociology and social philosophy. Like other sociologists of this period, Yoneda can be characterized as an enlightenment scholar. However, in contrast to his prolific output, there are surprisingly few works where he systematically presented his own theoretical framework. If pressed to name one, we could point to Theory of Sociology published in the first and second issues of volume 1 of the Annual Report of the Japanese Institute of Sociology in December 1913 (Taisho 2). Additionally, in Modern Sociological Theory, a collection of Yoneda’s posthumous works edited by his students Takata Yasuma and Usui Jisyo, there are several chapters that provide insight into his sociological framework. However, these do not present the complete sociological system he had envisioned during his lifetime. Therefore, to understand Yoneda’s sociological framework, readers must undertake the task of reconstructing it from his writings throughout his life. In this chapter, we aim to reconstruct the height of Japanese sociology from the late Meiji to Taisho periods by presenting Yoneda Shotaro’s sociological framework.