Civilization and Enlightenment

The idea that society progresses through stages of development, from savagery to civilization, arose in eighteenth-century Europe. Albert Craig traces how Fukuzawa Yukichi, deeply influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, "e;translated"e; the idea for Japanese society, both enriching and challenging the concept.Fukuzawa, an official in the Tokugawa government, saw his career collapse when the shogunate ended in 1867. Reinventing himself as a thinker and writer, he made his life work the translation and interpretation of the Western idea of the stages of civilization. He interpreted key Scottish intellectuals- Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, William Robertson, John Millar; relied on American geographies to help explain how societies progress; and focused on invention as a key to civilization.By defining the role of "e;less developed"e; nations in the world order, Fukuzawa added a new dimension to the stage theory. But by the end of the 1880s, he had come to dismiss the philosophy of natural rights as "e;the fatuous idealism of Christian ministers."e; Though civilization-as represented by Britain-was still his goal for Japan, he no longer saw the West as a uniformly beneficial moral force.This engaging history offers an illuminating look at an important figure and the world of ideas in nineteenth-century Japan.