〒220-0011A Dignity-Centered Reimagining of Civilization for the 21st Century
Prologue
In my previous writings, beginning with what I called a “modern renaissance” and rooted in a philosophy centered on the human person, I have explored questions of dignity across many domains of society—economy, politics, family, education, and the arts.
All of these inquiries have grown from a single question: What does it truly mean to honor a human being as human?
Now, I turn this question once more toward the larger framework of society itself—toward the very structure we call civilization.
1. Civilization as a Historical Structure of Human Regard
Civilization is not merely a collection of institutions or technologies.
It is the deeper structure of society, grounded in the quality of how human beings are regarded and treated.
Looking back through history, civilizations have been shaped by different values and technologies in each era. Broadly, we may trace the following sequence:
- The Civilization of Reason: Supported by Enlightenment thought and modern philosophy, it sought to build order through universality and rationality.
- The Civilization of Industry: Centered on productivity and efficiency, it regarded human beings primarily as labor power.
- The Civilization of Information: Focused on the speed of knowledge and distribution, it began to treat human beings as data.
Each of these civilizations defined human existence in relation to evolving systems and technologies. Yet beneath them all lies a persistent question: What is the human being? How should a person be treated?
Today we face a new challenge: one that cannot be measured by systems or efficiency alone—how to safeguard human dignity.
This challenge calls us to reconsider civilization itself, not only its institutions but the vision of humanity at its foundation.
In this work, I seek to explore the possibility of a new civilization, one that places at its center the human flame beyond systems—the flame of question and dignity.
This is what I propose as the Civilization of Dignity.
2. Contemporary Anxiety and the Role of Philosophy—Recovering the Question
We live in a time when institutions and technologies grow ever more sophisticated, yet the meaning of being human is increasingly obscured.
Alongside the advance of AI, the excess of information, and the fragmentation of values, anxiety spreads into daily life:
economic insecurity, isolation in old age, declining public safety, the burdens of childcare and caregiving, concerns about health, and the invisible yet real emptiness of the heart—the sense of having no purpose, no genuine connection with others.
Geopolitical tensions and natural disasters further cast shadows across our lives.
In such an age, what role should philosophy play?
Its role is not to rush toward answers, but to recover the question.
A question is the act of reclaiming the human voice that has been obscured within systems.
Systems—law, education, economy, politics—are the formal structures that shape society. They provide the vessel of social life. Yet when human dignity becomes invisible within them, people quietly turn to questions, seeking to touch their own voice and way of being.
The trunk of what I call Koga Philosophy is a human-centered philosophy grounded in the premise that the human being is a bearer of light.
(Though not widely known, I use the term “Koga Philosophy” to refer to my own philosophical approach.)
In this philosophy, a question is not merely a tool of thought.
It is a flame to safeguard human dignity, the starting point of ethical choice.
Through such philosophical questioning, Koga Philosophy sketches a threefold path toward the recovery of dignity:
- To hold a question
Turn inward quietly and ask: How do I wish to live?
Step back from the noise of society and the expectations of others, and listen for your own voice. - To choose anew
Live not by the gaze of others but by your own axis.
This is not mere comfort, but a sincere re-design of life. - To build relationships
Contribute quietly to the dignity of others.
Guard your own flame while ensuring that no one else’s flame is extinguished.
Through these three steps, questioning becomes not a tool of self-analysis but a path to reclaiming one’s dignity.
Those who live by their own axis become sensitive to the dignity of others, and from this sensitivity arises a quiet altruism.
Such altruism is not imposed, but emerges naturally within relationships.
In this way, the meaning of life is found within relationship, leading to a deep assurance—the sense that “I am allowed to be here.”
This assurance becomes a quiet force that reshapes the structures of society.
Dignity cannot be drawn into the blueprint of institutions, but it can be quietly recovered through the practice of questioning.
In the next chapter, we will look again at how dignity has been treated in the deeper layers of civilization.
3. Writing on Civilization as a Quiet Responsibility
A reflection on civilization is not merely social critique.
It is an engagement with the fundamental questions: What is the human being? In what atmosphere do we wish to live?
Blueprints can be drawn for institutions, but the air of civilization cannot be rewritten so easily.
Institutions have form, but civilization has quality.
That quality lies in the invisible layer of relationships—how human beings are regarded and treated.
Thus, to write on civilization is to take up a quiet responsibility of questioning the quality of the air.
It is an attempt to stand outside institutions, to hold questions, and to sketch the possibility of a civilization that safeguards dignity.
This work is not written to change others.
It is a quiet flame for those who simply wish to say: “This is the atmosphere I want to live in.”
Notes for International Readers
- This text is offered with deep respect for diverse cultural and religious traditions.
- The term dignity is meant in its universal sense: the inherent worth of every human being, beyond any particular creed or institution.
- The aim is not to prescribe a single path, but to invite reflection across traditions, allowing each reader to find resonance in their own context.
Chapter 1: Lineage of Civilization Theory — From Plato and Kant to the Present
In the prologue, we revisited the flow of civilizations shaped by reason, industry, and information.
These streams reveal how the evolution of institutions and technologies has transformed the way human beings are regarded and understood.
Yet civilization cannot be explained by institutional structures alone.
Behind them lies a lineage of thought that has continually asked: What is civilization? What is the human being?
In this chapter, I will reflect on three approaches to civilization—those of Plato, Kant, and Koga Philosophy—to see how the principles of civilization have shifted over time.
The trajectory begins with the order of the soul, passes through the universality of reason, and opens toward a re-design grounded in question and dignity.
By tracing this lineage, we can see where the Civilization of Dignity stands, what it inherits, and what it seeks to transcend.
1. Plato — Civilization as the Order of the Soul
What is civilization?
To this question, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato offered a structural answer: the order of the soul corresponds to the order of the state.
In The Republic, Plato divided the human soul into three parts—reason, spirit, and desire—and argued that justice in the individual arises when these parts are in harmony.
This inner order of the soul, he proposed, corresponds to the hierarchical structure of the state—rulers, guardians, and producers—and through this correspondence, justice is realized in society as a whole.
Civilization, then, is not merely a collection of institutions, but a condition in which the inner order of human beings resonates with external order.
In this view, the quality of civilization is measured by the harmony of virtues.
When wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are balanced in both the individual and the state, civilization is considered healthy.
Plato’s theory of civilization rests on the idea that inner order shapes social order.
It is a vision of civilization that values the tuning of the soul more than the design of institutions.
This perspective profoundly influenced later philosophers and became the starting point of a lineage that sees civilization as a reflection of the human condition.
2. Kant — The Universality of Reason and Morality
In the modern era, Immanuel Kant reinterpreted civilization through the universality of reason and morality.
His philosophy, shaped by the currents of Enlightenment thought, placed human autonomy and ethical duty at the foundation of civilization.
For Kant, the human being is a rational being, capable through reason of establishing universal moral law—the categorical imperative.
This imperative commands: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
A “maxim” here refers to the inner principle one follows when acting.
For example, if one acts from the thought “I should help those in need,” the maxim is “Whenever I see someone in need, I ought to help.”
Kant held that the moral test lies in asking whether such a maxim could be valid as a universal law for all.
Furthermore, Kant declared that human beings must be treated not as means but as ends in themselves.
This perspective connects directly to the view that safeguarding human dignity is a condition of civilization.
Civilization, then, is not the mere arrangement of institutions, but the construction of relationships in which human beings mutually respect one another as ends.
For this, rational self-control and the fulfillment of moral duty are indispensable.
Kant’s vision of civilization contrasts with Plato’s emphasis on inner order, by seeking instead to build external order through universal reason.
It is an attempt to carry ethics from the individual interior into the structures of society, and it has deeply influenced modern thought on human rights and legal systems.
3. Koga Philosophy — Reimagining Civilization through Question and Dignity
Just as Plato grounded civilization in the order of the soul, and Kant in the universality of reason and morality, Koga Philosophy offers a third attempt: to reimagine civilization by centering it on question and dignity beyond institutions.
This philosophy rests on the premise that the human being is a bearer of light.
It is a human-centered philosophy, but not in the sense of Western anthropocentrism.
It does not mean that humans are sovereign over nature or others, but that the safeguarding of human dignity must stand at the center of civilization.
In Koga Philosophy, “center” does not mean a center of power, but a center of question and relationship.
Civilization should be measured not by institutional design, but by the quality of the air—how human beings are regarded and treated.
Institutions shape the vessel of society, but when dignity becomes invisible within that vessel, civilization quietly deteriorates.
What is needed then is not merely institutional reform, but the recovery of the question.
A question is the act of reclaiming the human voice obscured within systems, and the starting point of ethical choice.
Through such questioning, people recover their own dignity and become sensitive to the dignity of others.
In Koga Philosophy, the quality of civilization is measured by how questions, sincerity, and silence are treated.
It is not efficiency or rationality that defines civilization, but whether the human flame is protected. (This will be discussed further in the next chapter.)
This vision of civilization is not written to change others.
It is a quiet flame for those who simply wish to say: “I want to live in this age.”
And when that flame is safeguarded, civilization quietly shifts beyond institutions toward a new structure centered on dignity.
As this chapter closes, I wish to leave a quiet question:
What kind of atmosphere does the civilization you wish to live in carry?
Within that atmosphere, is your flame protected?
Chapter 2: The Deep Structure of Civilization — Inquiry, Sincerity, and Silence
Civilization should not be measured by its institutions or technologies, but by the quality of the air—how human beings are regarded and treated.
In the deeper layers of this air, we find reflected the way in which what cannot easily be spoken—inquiry, sincerity, and silence—is treated.
In this chapter, I propose three guiding questions for discerning the quality of a civilization:
- Does the civilization allow an atmosphere where questions may be asked?
- How are sincerity and silence treated within its institutions?
- What do Japanese cultural notions such as wa (harmony), jihi (compassion), and the ethics of silence suggest for the philosophy of civilization?
The Air That Permits Inquiry
The maturity of a civilization is revealed in whether it allows the air of inquiry.
Here, inquiry does not mean doubting the correctness of institutions, but quietly re-examining the human way of being.
Where inquiry is not permitted, correctness and results are prioritized, while silence and hesitation are excluded.
In such an atmosphere, institutions become rigid, and human dignity becomes invisible.
To measure the depth of a civilization is to ask how much space for questioning it allows.
Why Sincerity and Silence Become Invisible
In contemporary society, sincerity and silence are increasingly difficult to see within institutions.
Sincerity means living according to one’s inner voice, not the gaze of others. It is integrity, a way of life that seeks to preserve inner coherence beyond gain or recognition.
Silence is the protection of feelings and relationships through what is left unsaid.
It is the trust preserved by not speaking, the space created by not saying too much, and the atmosphere in which being together without words is permitted.
Silence is not mere absence, but a mirror reflecting the depth of relationship.
Yet institutions demand visibility, quantification, and verbalization.
As a result, sincerity is dismissed as “inefficiency,” and silence is misunderstood as “absence.”
Thus, the ethics dwelling in the depths of human life slip through the net of institutions.
The deterioration of the air of civilization occurs when such invisible realities are disregarded.
Prince Shōtoku’s Wa and the Compassion and Silence of Japanese Buddhism
In the depths of Japanese thought lives a culture that honors inquiry, sincerity, and silence.
One symbol of this is the wa (harmony) upheld by Prince Shōtoku (574–622), a statesman and thinker of the Asuka period, who actively incorporated Buddhism into Japan’s early institutions.
The opening line of his Seventeen-Article Constitution, “Harmony is to be valued”, is not mere conformity, but an attitude of respecting coexistence without excluding different voices.
Within it are contained the values of holding questions, preserving silence, and living sincerely.
In Japanese Buddhism—especially in the Lotus Sutra, Pure Land traditions, and Zen—compassion and silence have been placed at the center of human existence.
Rather than exhausting words, one sits together, one prays together.
This is an ethic of relationship beyond institutions, a quiet current flowing in the depths of civilization.
Dialogue with Japan’s Intellectual Background
When considering Japan’s intellectual background, dialogue with Confucianism and Daoism is indispensable.
In Confucianism, Confucius and Mencius sought to discover ethics within human relationships through ren (benevolence) and li (ritual propriety).
Here we see a strong emphasis on sincerity and the honoring of silence.
In Daoism, especially in the thought of Zhuangzi, we find a vision of freedom beyond the limits of institutions and language.
His ideas of wu wei ziran (effortless naturalness) and xiaoyao you (free wandering) point to the possibility of life unbound by systems.
Koga Philosophy engages in dialogue with these traditions, seeking to reconstruct an ethic of inquiry and relationship beyond institutions.
The Quiet Ethics of Japanese Culture and Its Implications for Civilization
Japanese culture carries an ethic of being quietly sincere—without raising one’s voice, without condemning others.
It is an attitude that values harmony in relationships more than institutional correctness, and that nurtures an atmosphere where inquiry and silence are not excluded.
This quiet ethic offers important implications for the design of civilization.
It does not deny institutions, but seeks to shape an atmosphere that protects the human flame beyond them.
The Civilization of Dignity is an attempt to once again place such quiet ethics at the center.
It is not proclaimed loudly, but quietly chosen and re-chosen in the fabric of daily relationships.
Closing Questions of the Chapter
Does the air you live in allow inquiry?
Are sincerity and silence being left unseen, abandoned in the background?
If you were to touch the deep structure of civilization, what kind of flame would you choose to light?
Chapter 3: The Pathologies of Civilization — Systemic Acceleration and the Loss of Humanity
Civilization is shaped by its institutions.
Yet when institutions accelerate and become ends in themselves, civilization quietly falls ill.
This illness is an atmosphere in which questioning human beings are excluded, and sincerity and silence are dismissed as “inefficiency.”
In this chapter, I will reconsider how the acceleration of institutions erodes human dignity, through the perspectives of modern and contemporary thinkers.
I will then explore how the “question standing outside institutions,” as proposed in Koga Philosophy, may offer a quiet response to these pathologies of civilization.
1. Institutional Acceleration and the “Inner World”
Institutions are designed to order society.
But with the advance of technology, institutions begin to self-replicate.
The speeding up of information processing, the automation of judgment through AI, and the chain of efficiency—all of these expand the “inner world” of institutions, creating structures in which the human voice no longer reaches.
Alvin Toffler, in Future Shock (1970), warned that “the pace of change exceeds the human capacity to adapt.”
He foresaw a future in which the arrival of the information society would leave human beings unable to keep pace with institutions.
This “shock of the future” deprives human life of rhythm and emotional space, generating anxiety and emptiness in the deeper layers of civilization.
When institutions accelerate, there is no room left for questions.
Institutions assume their own correctness, and questions are dismissed as “noise.”
2. The Emptiness of Post-Capitalism and Post-Efficiency
Peter Drucker, in Post-Capitalist Society (1993), predicted the arrival of the knowledge society.
He argued that not capital or labor, but knowledge, would become the center of society, envisioning a future in which human creativity and judgment would form the core of institutions.
Yet the knowledge society could not transcend the limits of institutions.
Knowledge once again became a tool of efficiency, and institutions abandoned human meaning and relationship.
Drucker’s thought aimed toward human-centered management, but it did not fully address the emptiness in the depths of institutions—the way questions and silence are treated.
Post-capitalism is not merely the redesign of institutions.
It is the question of how to protect the human flame that exists beyond institutions.
3. The Atmosphere Where Questioning Humans “Must Not Exist”
Hannah Arendt, in The Human Condition (1958), divided human activity (vita activa) into labor, work, and action, and emphasized “action”—dialogue with others and political practice.
She warned of the danger that institutions may exclude the thinking human being.
Institutions seek stability and reproducibility, but the questioning human being unsettles them.
Thus institutions begin to treat such people as those who “must not exist.”
This atmosphere has quietly spread into contemporary society.
When questioning is regarded as troublesome, inefficient, or dangerous, civilization begins to fall ill in its depths.
4. Institutional Autonomy as a Pathology of Civilization
Jacques Ellul, in The Technological Society (1954), warned of the danger that technology becomes an end in itself, and institutions begin to treat human beings merely as means.
He criticized the structure in which technology prioritizes what can be done, while forgetting what ought to be done.
Institutions, like technology, also tend toward autonomy.
They lose sight of their purposes and exist only to perpetuate themselves.
At such times, human beings are treated within institutions as “roles” or “functions,” while questions, emotions, and relationships are pushed outside.
The pathology of civilization lies in institutions forgetting to treat human beings as ends.
5. The Response of Koga Philosophy — The Question Standing Outside Institutions
Koga Philosophy begins from the premise that the human being is a bearer of light.
It is an attempt to reimagine civilization by centering it on questions and dignity that exist beyond institutions.
When institutions accelerate and exclude questioning, the response cannot be found within them.
What is needed is to stand outside institutions and recover the question.
A question is not the doubting of institutional correctness, but the quiet act of re-examining the human way of being.
The atmosphere in which such questions are protected becomes a quiet healing for the pathologies of civilization.
Koga Philosophy is not a “counter-institution” designed to halt institutional excess.
Rather, by standing outside institutions and re-examining the quality of the air—how human beings are regarded—it offers a perspective for questioning the very design of institutions.
This philosophy suggests that by looking at humanity from outside institutions, we may re-design the very structure of civilization.
It is not a loudly proclaimed solution.
It is instead a quiet response, offering a flame that protects question and dignity for those who simply wish to say: “This is the air I want to live in.”
Against the illness of institutions, Koga Philosophy seeks to recover the act of questioning, and through it, to restore human dignity to the center of civilization.
This is a quiet and fundamental path of re-design, visible only when one stands outside institutions.
Closing Questions of the Chapter
Does the air of the institutions you live within allow questioning?
Are sincerity and silence being excluded, left unseen?
If you were to stand outside institutions, what questions would you wish to recover?
Chapter 4: Forecasting the Future — A Quiet Shift Toward a Civilization of Dignity
We now stand at a turning point of civilization.
The evolution of AI, climate change, the rigidity of institutions, and the fragmentation of values are not merely social challenges.
They confront us with fundamental questions: What is the human being? What does it mean to live together?
On the extension line of institutions and technologies, the hope of the future is no longer easily visible.
What is needed now is a re-design of civilization centered on dignity—
a reconstruction of the human-centered philosophy proposed in Koga Philosophy.
In this chapter, I will quietly forecast the directions civilization may take, through the lens of a reconfiguration of institutions, emotions, and relationships.
1. Where Civilization Is Heading — AI, Climate, Isolation, and Value Fragmentation
Contemporary civilization trembles quietly amid accelerating technologies and divided values.
AI automates judgment, the climate warns against human activity, and society, caught between isolation and excessive information, begins to lose sight of the quality of relationships.
Institutions grow more complex, emotions are made visible, and relationships are streamlined for efficiency.
As a result, the space for questioning disappears, and sincerity and silence are dismissed as “inefficiency.”
In such an age, to consider the future of civilization is not to predict the evolution of institutions or technologies,
but to re-examine where human dignity is placed.
2. Structural Principles of a Civilization Centered on Dignity
Dignity is the atmosphere in which a person is protected simply in their being—
not judged by others, not reduced to roles.
Koga Philosophy proposes to place dignity at the center of civilization, and thereby to reconfigure institutions, emotions, and relationships:
- Institutions: designed to allow space for questioning
- Emotions: not reduced to numbers, but protected within empathy and silence
- Relationships: nurtured not by efficiency, but by sincerity and the quality of co-presence
This structural principle arises from questions that stand outside institutions.
It is also a quiet form of healing for the pathologies of civilization.
3. Redefining the Units of Social Design — Family, Education, Enterprise, Community, Politics, Technology
A civilization centered on dignity re-examines the very units of social design.
This is not a renewal of institutions, but a transformation of the quality of the air.
- Family: not only a place of role fulfillment, but a space where questions and silence are permitted
- Education: not a place to teach correct answers, but a place to cultivate inquiry
- Enterprise: not a site of efficiency, but one that values sincerity and the quality of relationships
- Community: a place of co-presence beyond institutions
- Politics: not only the representation of voices, but the cultivation of an atmosphere where questions and dignity are protected
- Technology: redefined as a tool to support human dignity
These redefinitions do not change the structure of institutions directly.
They arise from re-examining the quality of the air—how human beings are treated.
It is a quiet attempt to rewrite the design principles at the depths of civilization.
4. Responding to International Readers — Points of Contact and Limits with “Well-Being” and “Human-Centric AI”
The vision of a Civilization of Dignity, though rooted in the quiet ethics of Japanese culture, also holds the possibility of resonating with global currents of thought.
In recent years, concepts such as well-being and human-centric AI have gained attention, particularly in Europe and North America.
These are attempts to place human happiness and dignity at the center of technology and institutions, and they share certain points of contact with the civilizational structure envisioned in Koga Philosophy.
Yet these concepts seek to protect humanity from within institutions, and they do not sufficiently touch upon the questions that stand outside institutions, nor upon the invisible ethics of silence and sincerity.
There is also the danger that terms like “happiness” or “human-centered” may be absorbed into contexts of quantification and efficiency.
Koga Philosophy engages in dialogue with such ideas, while offering a perspective of designing an atmosphere that protects questions standing outside institutions.
This is not a critique of the limits of Western thought, but an attempt to offer the quiet possibility of civilizational transformation beyond them.
5. A Vision of the Future — Possibilities of Social Change in 10–20 Years
The shift toward a Civilization of Dignity is not a dramatic revolution.
It is the process by which questions standing outside institutions are quietly re-chosen within daily relationships.
Ten or twenty years from now, society may have regained an atmosphere in which questioning is permitted, and sincerity and silence are honored not as “inefficiency” but as “depth.”
Enterprises may value the quality of relationships over outcomes.
Education may cultivate the capacity to hold questions.
Politics may become the practice of shaping an atmosphere that protects the voices that cannot be heard.
This vision of the future is not a prediction, but a quiet possibility of re-choosing the nature of institutions and relationships.
And this possibility is nurtured like a flame in daily life, by those who continue to hold questions outside institutions.
Closing Questions of the Chapter
Is the air of the society you live in designed to protect questions and dignity?
Within your family, workplace, or community, what relationships would you wish to re-choose?
If, ten or twenty years from now, civilization were to place questioning human beings at its center,
what flame would you wish to hand forward into that future?
Chapter 5: Conclusion — Positioning the Civilization of Dignity and the Philosophy of the Next Generation
Civilization is designed by human beings who hold questions.
And when those questions stand outside institutions, civilization quietly restarts.
In this chapter, I will summarize the philosophical structure of the Civilization of Dignity as proposed in Koga Philosophy, and reconsider how it may be positioned within the contexts of philosophy, culture, religion, and civilization.
It is not a philosophy that spreads through loud assertion, but through quiet radiance.
It is a 21st-century vision of civilization that re-centers dignity above institutions and technologies.
1. The Next-Generation Turn of Philosophy — Regeneration as a Principle of Design
Koga Philosophy quietly turns philosophy from the “practice of questioning” into a principle of atmospheric design.
It is philosophy as thought that embeds ethics into the design of institutions and technologies, asking how the air that protects human dignity can be incorporated into the structures of society.
This philosophy is not abstract speculation.
It looks instead at concrete units of design—family, education, enterprise, politics, technology—and asks how to cultivate an atmosphere in which questions and sincerity are protected.
Philosophy, through questions that stand outside institutions, becomes a design principle that offers a flame into the deeper layers of civilization.
2. Not Transmission but Radiance — Redefining the Way Thought Spreads
Koga Philosophy also reconsiders the very way thought spreads.
It is not through assertion or diffusion, but through ways of being and atmosphere that quietly influence those around them.
I deliver words.
But they are not meant to persuade anyone.
They are a flame offered to provide an atmosphere that protects questions and dignity.
Transmission is the act of delivering words.
Radiance is the act of changing the air.
This philosophy spreads quietly through the way of being of those who wish to say: “I want to live in this air.”
It resonates not through words spoken within institutions, but through the quality of questions that stand outside them.
Thought reaches not by voice, but by air.
And when that air protects questions and dignity, civilization begins to change quietly.
3. Japan as Soil — Cultural Necessity and Quiet Responsibility
Koga Philosophy is rooted in the quiet ethics of Japanese culture.
Wa (harmony), ma (interval), silence, and co-presence—these form the foundation of an atmosphere that protects questions and dignity.
This philosophy was born from the soil of Japan, yet it is not closed off as something merely “Japanese.”
It is received instead as a responsibility born of cultural necessity.
The quiet ethics nurtured by Japanese culture can resonate globally as an atmosphere that protects questions standing outside institutions.
This is not cultural superiority, but the responsibility to offer an atmosphere that safeguards question and dignity.
4. Distance from Religion — Dignity as a Space for Resonance
The dignity addressed in Koga Philosophy does not depend upon any particular system of faith.
Rather, it is an engagement that honors religion while quietly resonating with the human light at its foundation.
For Christians, dignity may be heard as an ethical extension of the Imago Dei—the image of God.
For Muslims, it may be understood as the social practice of humanity as Khalifa—a reflection of God’s will.
For Buddhists, it may be received as a contemporary translation of Buddha-nature or compassion.
When differences of religion and culture are respected, and when we listen together to the common air of dignity, I believe an atmosphere of dialogue beyond division can be born.
Koga Philosophy does not deny faith.
It offers space for quiet civilizational transformation by accompanying the questions and light that lie at the depths of religious traditions.
5. The Civilization of Dignity — A 21st-Century Philosophy of Re-Centering Dignity Above Institutions
The Civilization of Dignity is a form of civilization that re-centers dignity above institutions and technologies.
It is a civilization in which questioning human beings are placed at the center, and in which sincerity and silence are protected as the principles of social design.
This civilization is not a loud revolution.
It is the process by which questions standing outside institutions are quietly re-chosen within daily relationships.
The Civilization of Dignity is not the renewal of institutions, but the quiet rewriting of the quality of air in the depths of civilization.
It is a civilization in which everyone can smile and say, “I am allowed to be here.”
It is a quiet reawakening, a modern renaissance centered on question and dignity.
I have learned from Peter Drucker as one of the thinkers I deeply respect, yet my philosophy stands as an independent flame.
I believe in the possibilities of the human being.