Confrontation with our own desire and evil

The followings are "the methodology of life studies" and "the guiding concepts of life studies" that constitute the essence of life studies.

The Methodology of Life Studies
1) My own life as a starting point and the ultimate end
The most important thing for life studies is that one's own life should be both the beginning and the end of life studies. In life studies we should never detach ourselves from the problems and think ourselves as exceptions. Knowledge or discussion completely separated from one's own life should not be included in life studies. Mere analysis of ethical concepts or social structure cannot constitute life studies. Instead, for example, a private narrative of my own experiences is a good starting point for life studies analysis of human psychology and ethics. I performed this process in the book How to Live in a Post-religious Age and Painless Civilization. Life studies comes close to literature in this sense. Subjective knowledge is as important as objective knowledge in life studies. We need to explore the ways to share subjective knowledge among us.

2) Pursuit of "life without regret"
The pursuit of life without regret is the ultimate end of life studies. In life studies, all intellectual activities, for example, reading, research, analysis, contemplation, discussion and writing, are concentrated and integrated to this end. We should be aware of the fact that our life in this world is limited. We are all going to die sooner or later. Hence, as mentioned above, life studies should be an attempt to acquire an interdisciplinary, organized knowledge, intellect, and wisdom that help us live our limited lives without regret. In the book Painless Civilization I presented the idea of "the central axis" existing on the basis of ourselves, by following which we are able to live our lives without regret.

3) Confrontation with our own desire and evil
Life studies encourages us to keep our eyes on our own "desire" and "evil" that are deeply engraved into our heart. We cannot entirely escape from our own desire and evil. What is needed is not to unconditionally accept them, but to forgive us who cannot escape from them, and to seek ways to continuously try to overcome our tendency to return to them. We have to explore wisdom and social system to support that attempt. Moral imperatives alone cannot change our fundamental attitudes. In the book Painless Civilization I presented the possibility of transforming "the desire of the body" into "the desire of life." And in the book Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics I presented the idea of "retroactive method from evil."

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What is Life Studies
(2004)
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