Climate and Culture (Fūdo)

Introduction

Watsuji Tetsuro read Heidegger’s Being and Time in Berlin in 1927, soon after it appeared, and developed this book, published in 1935, as a response. Heidegger, he argues, analysed human existence through time but neglected space and the social: humans exist in relationships (aidagara) and in a “climate” – the whole environment of weather, landscape and culture through which they understand themselves. He distinguishes three types, monsoon (South and East Asia), desert (Arabia) and meadow (Europe), each linked with characteristic attitudes, and adds a chapter on the particular character of Japan. The typology has been criticised as environmental determinism and cultural nationalism; at the same time the book counts as an early work of environmental philosophy.

Connections

Criticizes

• Being and Time1927 · Martin Heidegger