누나로부터의 메일. 연수(나의 첫조카)와 나의 둘째조카(형수의 뱃속에 있는)가 잘 자라고 있다는 기쁜 소식. 아울러, 할아버지가 나날이 건강을 잃어가고 있다는 우울한 소식. 올해를 넘기기가 힘들지도 모르겠다는 충격적인 소식.
내일 일찍 전화드려야지.
加藤ゼミ発表で「accomplish」の正しい訳語は｢成就｣よりは｢達成｣のほうじゃないかという指摘を受けた。えー、どこが違うんだろう。
それはともかく、発表の際少し触れた、所謂｢限定合理性｣(bounded rationality)という概念は、それ自体興味深いと同時に有用な概念だと思われる。既存の厳格な合理性前提が実際の現実を捉えるにはあまりに非現実すぎだという批判から、それを若干｢柔らかくした｣ものである。そこでは何より、政治の空間で人間が直面せざるを得ない情報獲得の不完全性を認めた上で、さらにその行動が行われる環境が重視される。言ってみれば、特定の環境の中での合理性（utility maximizing）といったものになろう。この概念の持つ何よりのメリットは、一見非合理的に見えるある行為、にもかかわらず一定のパターンを持って長期間続く不思議な行為を、合理性前提をもって説明できることにある。たとえば、ファシスト政権下の政治行動、テロリストや人種差別グルップの成員の行動とか。
加藤先生は、もうすっかり大物になったような感じ。あまりにも。
Tracy Flick, a super-ambitious overachiever in the movie "Election", who feels superior to everyone else and firmly believes that she is entitled to ultrasuccess because she works so hard at being a winner. She is a member of every worthwhile club in school, and an officer in most. She's a straight-A student, on the fast track in a relentless pursuit of success. Now, she is running for school government president, hoping a victory would turn out to be the ultimate stepping-stone into the perfect college she desires. Then, must she be stopped?How can we deal with this Tracy-like human beings in the world? Is it Ok to leave them alone because they don't do harm to the world? Or what if they really do?
It could be a good starting point to clarify the criterion that best defines the different "identities" of the two disciplines:
"the primary goal of historians is to describe, understand and interpret individual events or a temporarily and spatially bounded series of events, whereas the primary goal of political scientists is to generalize about the relationships between variables and, to the extent possible, construct law-like propositions about social behaviour."
It seems that a national campaign for editing a totally new dictionary of Korean collaborators in colonial times(親日派) is gaining a significant momentum. Oh My News, taking the initiative in the campaign, said that the total amount of the fund already came to 150 million won.
To the remark of Mr. Koizumi that Tokdo(or Takeshima) belongs to Japan, the Korean government apparently decided to take a 'wait and see' attitude, controlling emotional reactions. And at least up to this point, Koreans are generally in favor of this 'no-reaction' strategy.
Seeing the interview in which the assertiveness with which Koizumi said about the authority of Tokdo was pretty shocking even to me, I was quite sure that there would be a sort of emotional repercussion in Korea for sure. Many Koreans seem to be thinking that dealing with this kind of remark emotionally will result in being dragged into Japan's strategy, which aims at internationalizing the issue and attracting domestic attention.
Anyway, I haven't still figured out to whom Koizumi are saying when he speaks of recent disputed issues.
遂に命令が出された陸上自衛隊のイラク派遣、従来の安保・防衛政策との相違は？
(以下、『朝日新聞』 1.10、コラム)
第一は、陸自が初めて他国と肩を並べて、多国籍軍型の活動に参加すること。
第二は、PKO活動のように国連から与えられた枠組みによらず、派遣自体はもとより、任務、部隊の規模・装備、活動地域など、すべてを日本が自主的に決めたこと。
同時に、高い危険性を覚悟していかなければならないという状況も従来にはなかったもの。
最も重要なのは、仮にその作戦がうまくいかなかった場合に、現政権が被りうるリスクの大きさ、またそこからくる高い「政治性」である。というのも、今の憂慮が現実のものになれば、政府がこれまで繰り返してきた、戦闘地域・非戦闘地域の区別や、現地の治安情勢に関する説明が全く説得力を失うからである。
しかし逆に、自衛隊が立派に任務を果たすことになれば、何が起こるんだろう。
The Korea Times --
"...Japan was quick to respond to South Korea’s decision to issue stamps featuring Tokto Island by announcing it will publish its own stamps of the disputed islets... It is an indisputable fact that, irrespective of whatever Japan does, Tokto belongs to South Korea, not Japan, Shin Bongh-kil, Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokesman, said in a statement."
The Japan Times--
"It is premature for the government to establish a secular memorial as an alternative to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the nation's war dead, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday...China and South Korea were quick to denounce Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine, his fourth since taking office in April 2001...Fukuda also said there should be public support for a secular memorial and that it should not be established amid opposition."
James Mahoney gives us the most lucid definition of path dependence.
To make more specific usual (loose) definitions like "organizational evolution that directions for future development are foreclosed or inhibited by directions taken in past development", he presents three defining features; it involves 1) the study of causal processes that are highly sensitive to events that take place in the early stages of an overall historical sequence, 2) the contingency of early events which cannot be explained on the basis of prior events or "initial conditions", and 3) path-dependent sequences marked by relatively deterministic causal patterns or what can be thought of as "inertia."
Along with this narrowed-down definition, a table is quite conducive to understanding the dynamics of the path-dependent model.(James Mahoney, Path dependency in historical sociology, Theory and Society 29, 2000, p514)
兄が、正確には義理のお姉さんがついに妊娠した。めったに感情を表にしないオヤジの声が震えていた。皆、相当嬉しいだろう。特に、口にはしなかったとはいえ、今までお姉さんが陰に陽に受けてきたはずの精神的な苦労を考えると、本当におめでとう、といわざるを得ない。
だいぶ薄れてきたとはいっても、自称他称、最後の儒教国家である韓国で、長男が背負う重荷って、やっぱり想像を超えるものである。もう少しで30歳なのに、結婚もせず、未来への何の保障も与えない勉強を、しかも異国の地で続けられるって、まさに末っ子の特権以外に何物でもない。本当、よかった。
..was to clean up my room. I gave up going to the shrine for paying New Year's respect because I don't feel great. Might be sort of cold. (Many people who know I just got back from HK, were looking at me in a very suspicious way, when I told them that I felt like I got a cold...)
The first person to whom I said "Happy New Year" was, not surprisingly, the guardman of the dorm just 5 minutes after saying "Yoi Otoshio" when borrowing the key of vacuum cleaner. Maybe he's gonna be lucky this year.
Anyway, Everybody Out there, Happy New Year!!!