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Thinking World Philosophies

The Collected Philosophical Essays of WatsujiClimate, Ethics, Nationality

Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth, Takeshi Morisato

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Published 30 November 2026

About this book

Reshapes the landscape of English-language Watsuji studies

  • Offers the first collection of Watsuji’s essays in any European language
  • Includes the final chapter of Climate, completing Watsuji’s magnum opus for the first time in English
  • Contributes to Watsuji scholarship in the fields of ethics, climate, and nationality
  • Introduces each translation as a narrative account, providing an accessible overview and introduction to the development of Watsuji’s thought
  • Contains an appendix of all of Watsuji’s publications in chronological order, and a list of all existing translations of Watsuji in English
  • Provides a chronology of Watsuji’s life in relation to the contemporary history of Japan and of Japanese philosophy

Watsuji Tetsurō (1889-1960) is Japan’s foremost ethical philosopher. These essays, expertly translated by native English and Japanese speakers, offer the first English translation of many of Watsuji’s key texts including the final, and perhaps most important, chapter of Climate: A Philosophical Consideration (1962), Watsuji’s magnum opus.

The selected translations are organised around three key themes: climate, ethics and nationality. Editorial introductions to each chapter construct a narrative account of Watsuji’s key concepts, putting the translations into context with Watsuji’s wider ideas. This collection positions Watsuji as a major world philosopher whose ideas are indispensable for thinking through environmental philosophy, global ethics and comparative philosophy in the twenty-first century.

Reviews

The virtue of this volume is to weave into an extensible whole the various strands of Watsuji’s enduring contributions to global philosophy. Morisato’s and Shuttleworth’s translations and commentaries demonstrate the development, range, and interconnection of Watsuji’s signature and often controversial ideas about the national, cultural, ethical, and climate-related dimensions of human existence.
A most welcome addition to the field of Japanese philosophy, and a boon to Watsuji scholars everywhere. These essential essays—many of which are translated here for the first time—grant a wider readership deeper access to the thought of Japan’s foremost secular philosopher.
Table of contents

Watsuji on Climate, Ethics, and Nationality

1. A Consideration of National Character (1928)

2. Climate (1929)

3. Historical Reflections on the Study of Climate (1935)
1. The Study of Climate up to Herder
2. Herder’s Climatology of Spirit
3. Hegel’s Climatic Philosophy
4. The Study of Climate After Hegel

4. Various Aspects of Virtue (1942)
1. Virtue as Gain
2. Virtue as Aretē
3. Virtue as the Way of Human Relations
4. The Unity of the Virtues
5. Unity as the Fundamental Law of Human Existence

5. America’s National Character (1944)
1. Anglo-Saxon Character as the Basis of America’s National Character
2. Immigration to America
3. Development of the Hobbesian Character in America
4. Development of the Baconian Character in America
5. The Pioneering Character

6. The History of Ethical Thought in Japan: An Introduction (1952)

Appendix
Index

About the contributors

Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth

Kyle Michael James Shuttleworth is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Akita International University in Japan. He has previously worked at Japan Women’s University, Ritsumeikan Asian Pacific University, and Rikkyo University. His research focuses on contemporary conceptions of the good life, environmental issues, and the ethical thought of Watsuji Tetsurō. He previously received a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) to research the environmental issue of anthropocentrism. His publications include the monograph The History and Ethics of Authenticity (2020), the translation of Watsuji Tetsurō’s memories of Natsume Sōseki: “Until I met Sōseki” and “Sōseki’s Character” in Journal of East Asian Philosophy (2025), Watsuji Tetsurō’s Attempt at an Autobiography (2026) Hawaii University Press, and the research articles ‘Beyond Anthropocentrism: A Watsujian Ecological Ethic’ in Asian Philosophy (2025), and ‘Rethinking The Replacement of Physicians with AI’ in American Philosophical Quarterly (2025).

Takeshi Morisato

Takeshi Morisato is Lecturer of Non-Western Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is a specialist in Japanese and World Philosophies. He is editor of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy and associate editor of the Journal of East Asian Philosophy. He is regional editor of the Bloomsbury Introduction to World Philosophies series. He is the author of Tanabe Hajime and the Kyoto School: Self, World and Knowledge (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Faith and Reason in Continental and Japanese Philosophy: Reading Tanabe Hajime and William Desmond (Bloomsbury, 2019). He is co-editor of The Dialectic of Absolute Nothingness: The Legacy of German Philosophy in the Kyoto School (Cornell University Press, 2023), Vanishing Subjectivity: Flower, Shame, and Direct Cultivation in Asian Philosophies (Mimesis International, 2021) and Asian Philosophical Texts: Exploring Hidden Sources (Mimesis International, 2020). He is also a translator and Ōhashi Ryōsuke, Kyoto School and Imperial Japanese Navy: Over New Historical Material, ‘Ōshima’s Memorandum’ is forthcoming with Bloomsbury, 2024.

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