News
2024.08.26
On Monday, July 15, 2024, the Research Center for Textual Scholarship held an event titled “Philosophy from the Standpoint of Manuscripts and Archives” in the Global Lounge of Building 9 at Seijo University. The event attracted not only our university’s students and faculty but also many graduate students and researchers from various institutions and disciplines. Engaging discussions unfolded between speakers and audience members on issues surrounding the manuscripts and archives of philosophers and writers such as Merleau-Ponty, Valéry, Pascal, and Kafka, making the event both intellectually stimulating and highly successful.
The first part featured Dr. Benedetta Zaccarello (Researcher, Centre national de la recherche scientifique), who delivered a keynote lecture titled “What Can We Learn from Philosophical Manuscripts and Archives?” Drawing on her editorial work on the texts of Merleau-Ponty and Valéry, Dr. Zaccarello discussed the significance of studying philosophy through manuscripts and archival materials. She emphasized that such sources—drafts, reading notes, and other documents—reveal that philosophy is not merely an abstract, solitary endeavor but rather an ongoing dialogue with the concrete “cultural horizons” that surround the philosopher. In other words, manuscripts and archives illuminate how philosophical concepts emerge not within a single language or national tradition but through dynamic intercultural interactions.
In the latter half of her lecture, Dr. Zaccarello introduced the AITIA Project (Archives of International Theory, an Intercultural Approach), an international collaborative research initiative she leads in cooperation with institutions and archives around the world. She explained the project’s scope and aims from this intercultural and comparative perspective.
The second part of the event featured a panel discussion with Professor Hirotsugu Yamajo (Osaka University; Special Visiting Scholar of the Center), Professor Masanori Tsukamoto (The University of Tokyo), and Professor Ko Murase (Seijo Univerisy; Scholar of the Center), joined by Professor Kiyoko Myojo (Seijo University, Director of the Research Center for Textual Scholarship) as moderator. A major topic that emerged in the discussion was the question of posthumous manuscripts. Before the discussion began, Professor Yamajo presented on Pascal’s Pensées, and Professor Tsukamoto on Valéry’s Cahiers, outlining the state of these manuscripts and their publication histories. Their remarks led to further questions: What can we learn from such manuscripts, and how should we edit them? These issues, as the participants noted, are also deeply relevant to authors like Kafka and to Merleau-Ponty’s unfinished The Visible and the Invisible, as introduced by Professor Murase.
What unites these cases is a fundamental question: What is a “work”? Do philosophers and writers truly write with the finished “work” in mind? Should editors shape manuscripts into something that resembles a completed work? These complex editorial and textual questions sparked a lively and profound exchange among the panelists and audience, grounded in specific examples from each author’s corpus.
After the formal program, a convivial reception was held in the same venue, providing participants with a further opportunity for active discussion and networking.
The Research Center for Textual Scholarship will continue to organize regular events on topics related to editorial and textual studies. Announcements will be posted on our university website. We warmly welcome all those interested to join us at future events.
