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[xmca] Re: Another answer from a science teacher

The added historical depth is really interesting, Yutaka. Thanks a lot
mike

On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Yutaka Sayeki <ysayeki@si.aoyama.ac.jp>wrote:

> Dear Mike;
>
> The below is an another answer from a science teacher, Arifumi Yoshioka, a
> graduate student of mine, on "Rika" and "Kagaku."
>
> The original meaning of "Kagaku" is used to be a collective of various
> academic studies, but now it is rather common to mean the natural science in
> Japan.
> But there has been a strong assertion that the human science and the social
> sience should also be included in the science in general (especially from
> students of
> humanities and social scientists to get more govermental aids to their
> fields, to redress an enormous difference existing between "sience aids" and
> "the other") .
> "Rika" originally meant the opposite word of the humanities in Japan.
> "Kagaku" and "Rika" were not so different in details, in the MEIJI era: The
> both meant natural science.
> But when the national school system was introduced in Japan, "Rika" became
> the name of a school subject, as Naomi indicated in the previous mail.
> It has often been said that "Rika" meant the learning of the "love of
> nature", but nowadays not many people say so. Rather, it seems to be more
> common to say that "Kagaku"  is "doing scientific activities" especially,
> while "Rika" , as a subject's name, is "learning scientific knowledge"
> (not necessarily by doing scientific activities-that IS a problem).
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Yutaka Sayeki,
> Department of Social Informatics
> Aoyamagakuin University.
>
>
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