4. Conclusion

Let me reiterate that we should learn all we can from existing disciplines and the basic terminologies used there. However, we must not indulge ourselves in a language-game under the name of research.

The terms that validate this game include many words such as “identity,” which bury us in the phenomena that should be the objects of our study, and make us contribute to its reproduction if we undertake studies using them as a tool. We conduct research to understand a certain phenomenon, not to contribute to its reproduction.

Of these two paths, it is quite easy to be led to the latter. In order to build the strength to resist this direction, we must look deeply at the existing disciplines and the basic terminologies they use.

 


A shopping center in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia

 

References:
Macpherson, C. B., 1962, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sugishima, Takashi, 1999, Introduction: The Ownership of Land, Body and Culture, in T. Sugishima (ed.), The Political History of Land Ownership, pp.11-52, Tokyo: Fukyosha. [in Japanese.]
Washida, Seiichi, 1993/1994, Ownership and Property: Concerning John Locke's Theory of Possession, Iichiko 29: 81-85, 30: 90-106. [in Japanese.]
Washida, Seichi, 1995, To Whom Does I Belong?, This is Yomiuri 5 (12): 120-129. [in Japanese.]

 

SUGISHIMA Takashi
What Is Identity?