Privacy An Intercultural Perspective

1. PrivacyAn Intercultural Perspective Rafael Capurro Stuttgart Media University www.capurro.de University of Pittsburgh 2006 http://www.capurro.de/Privacy_Pittsburgh1.ppt

2. Content Introduction • Looking into Japanese Minds • Looking into Our Minds Conclusion Rafael Capurro: Privacy

3. Introduction Two recent origins of the private debate in Western societies: • 9/11 • Developments in IT (ubiquitous computing, mobile devices, etc.) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

4. Introduction Why is privacy as a moral value not so important in Japan as it is in the West? Rafael Capurro: Privacy

5. Introduction The debate presupposes basic concepts such as: • Subjectivity • Autonomy • Human Dignity • Private / Public Sphere • Media Rafael Capurro: Privacy

6. Introduction • How did these concepts become part of our moral and legal self-understanding in Western countries? • How far this view of ourselves and our selves can be better understood by way of intercultural comparison for instance with the Japanese perspective? Rafael Capurro: Privacy

7. Introduction • This comparison started as an online dialogue with Makoto NAKADA and Takanori TAMURA (Univ. of Tsukuba, Japan) • See: Ethics & Information Technology (2005) 7 (Guest Editor: Charles Ess) • Makoto Nakada, Takanori Tamura: Japanese Conceptions of Privacy. (pp. 27-36) (NT) • Rafael Capurro: Privacy. An intercultural perspective. (pp. 37-47) (RC) Online: http://www.capurro.de/privacy.html Rafael Capurro: Privacy

8. Introductionhttp://www.logos.tsukuba.ac.jp/%7Enakada/regis/ Rafael Capurro: Privacy

9. Introduction ReGIS-HdM Workshop, Tuskuba June 2003 Rafael Capurro: Privacy

10. Introduction Japanese and Western subjectivity: • The classic Western view of subject and identity as something permanent and even substantial vs. • The structure of Japanese subjectivity as a „discontinuous identity“ = effect of a network of relations and situations Rafael Capurro: Privacy

11. Introduction Where do we dwell? Downtown Pittsburgh (Source: http://www.pitt.edu/~roztocki/Pittsburgh.html) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

12. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds The Tutiura Homicide Newspaper report about a homicide that happened in October 2004 in Tutiura (near Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture): a 28-year-old jobless son killed his parents and his elder sister. Rafael Capurro: Privacy

13. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „What surprised us was the public portrayal in Asahi Shimbun (viewed as a quality newspaper in Japan) of what we might otherwise expect to be private details about the victim‘s family.“ (NT, 28) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

14. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds • Seken, Shakai and Ikai • Aida and Musi • Ohyake and Watakusi Rafael Capurro: Privacy

15. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds I. Seken, Shakai and Ikai Rafael Capurro: Privacy

16. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds • Seken„is the aspect of the world that consists of traditional and indigenous world views“ • Shakai„includes modernized worldviews and ways of thinking influences in many respects by the thoughts and systems imported from ‚Western‘ countries.“ • Ikai „is the aspect of the world from which evils, disasters, crimes, and impurity – along with freedom and the sources and energy related to art and spiritual meanings – seem to emerge.“ (NT 27) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

17. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „To summarize: • In terms of Shakai – in fact, the ‚bad‘ aspects of ‚victims‘ are not revealed in the newspaper account, and in this way, a Western-like ‚privacy‘ is indeed respected and protected. • In terms of Seken – from this indigenous standpoint, with its emphasis on human relations (…) people need information about the victims‘ personalities and relationships in order to understand the meanings of this homicide (…) • In terms of Ikai – people likewise understand that some evils come from and are explained by Ikai.“ (NT 30) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

18. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds II. Aida and Musi Rafael Capurro: Privacy

19. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „Bim Kimura refers to Aida or ‚in-between‘ in his books. Aida means ‚between‘ and this word refers to the hidden „basement“ on which our surface subjectivty is probably based.“ (NT 29) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

20. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „In our Japanese culture, Musi is a very important word. Mu means ‚nothing‘ or ‚denial‘ and ‚si means ‚self‘ or ‚subjectivity‘. So Musi means ‚denial of (surface) subjectivity.‘ In our culture it is often said that Musi, denial of subjectivity, is the best – but ‚hidden‘ and difficult way to learn fine arts, martial arts and so on.“ (NT 29) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

21. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „The Tutiura homicide suggests the complexity of our concepts of ‚privacy‘. (…) It is clear that our notion of ‚privacy‘ is mainly limited to Shakai. But the denial of Shakai is not necessarily Ikai.The relationships between Shakai, Seken, Ikai seem to be a bit more complicated.“ (NT 30) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

22. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „But one thing is clear: privacy is not something like „intrinsic good“ – to use a term by Deborah Johnson – for us. For example, expressing or sharing (parts of) one‘s privacy seems to be a popular and traditional way to get good personal friends in Japan.“ (NT 30) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

23. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „In short, to betray one‘s dirty privacy – is to view oneself from the point of view of Buddha.“ (NT 30) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

24. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Kamakura_Budda_Daibutsu_front_1885.jpghttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Kamakura_Budda_Daibutsu_front_1885.jpg Rafael Capurro: Privacy

25. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „(…) we have attempted to determine the validity of this claim by way of empirical research and evidence for a number of years. (…) It is clear to us that Japanese people live in a world that consists of values or worldviews that fundamentally derive from their own, indigenous culture.“ (NT 30) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

26. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „In the traditional and original views and perspectives of Japanese culture, harmony between people, along with trusted human relationships, seem to have been the most valuable virtues. In contrast, privacy or individualism still remain outside the lists of the most important values for Japanese.“ (NT 31) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

27. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds III. Ohyake and Watakusi Rafael Capurro: Privacy

28. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „In Japanese, Ohyake and Watakusi are used as if they were equivalent to ‚public‘ and ‚private,‘ respectively. However, Ohyake, means originally ‚big house‘: Oh means big and yake means house. Later on, Ohyake refers to the imperial court, the government, the nation, society, as well as to making things open and to being impartial.“ (NT 32) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

29. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „Watakusi means ‚not Ohyake‘ – i.e., partial, secret and selfish. As we might expect now, things related to Watakusi are less worthy than things related to Ohyake.“ NT 32) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

30. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „And this means that Watakusi is not respected as much as ‚privacy‘ is in Western cultures and societies: this further means that Watakusi is not equivalent to ‚individualism‘ or ‚private.‘“ (NT 32) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

31. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „We have a hypothesis that there are two ‚axes‘ defining ‚public‘ and ‚private‘ issues currently in Japan. One is the ‚public‘ and ‚private‘ axis (i.e., as anchored on the loan word puraibashii) and the other is the Ohyake / Watakusi axis. They are intermixed.“ (NT 33) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

32. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „Japanese society may thus be seen to have intermixed realm of private/privacy‘ and Watakusi. This mixture is a feature of the privacy issue in Japan.“ (NT 34) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

33. 1. Looking into Japanese Minds „Japan is a complicated country – even for Japanese people themselves.“ (NT 27) Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan Rafael Capurro: Privacy

34. 2. Looking into Our Minds „One meaning of the Greek concept ethos is „to dwell“ (…) If the Japanese ethos is three-fold, I would say that the traditional Western dwelling is two-fold or „meta-physical“, namely the world of sensory experience and the world of sensible experience.“ (Plato: „topos aisthetos“ and „topos noetos“). (RC 38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

35. 2. Looking into Our Mindshttp://mms.uni-hamburg.de/meyer/seminare/truman/referate/Hoehlengleichnis.htm Rafael Capurro: Privacy

36. 2. Looking into Our Minds „The modern version of this division is the Kantian conception that we are dwellers of two worlds, namely the physical world which is strictly deterministic and the world of „ends in themselves“ or the „kingdom of ends.“ (RC 38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

37. 2. Looking into Our Minds „The latter is the basis of what he calls „human dignity“ (Würde) as different from things that have just a value (Wert). Human dignity is grounded in the human capacity of going beyond our natural being (…) by giving ourselves universalizable laws of action and by freely obeying them.“ (RC 38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

38. 2. Looking into Our Minds „In today‘s Western secularized and naturalized societies, it is difficult to make plausible this topical division between the physical and the metaphysical, even in its Kantian version.“ (RC 37-38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

39. 2. Looking into Our Minds „In many cases, a historical reason for acknowledging human dignity is given, namely the atrocities of World War II.“ Rafael Capurro: Privacy

40. 2. Looking into Our Minds http://www.lilano.de/catalog/index.php/cPath/21_32/language/deHolocaust Mahnmal, Berlin Rafael Capurro: Privacy

41. 2. Looking into Our Minds „In addition to philosophy and history, a third root of human dignity is the Judeo-Christian tradition with its conception of an inmortal soul created by God in his own image (imago dei).“ (RC 38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

42. 2. Looking into Our Minds „This brief overview shows that there is a tendency in Western thought towards a two-fold dweling – but due to different kinds of criticisms, the two places have been given different names, and they also look different, according to what the names refer to.“ (ibid. 39) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

43. 2. Looking into Our Minds „At the first sight, we are at the opposite of what my Japanese colleagues call „denial of subjectivity“ (Musi), particularly since Descartes discovered a firm foundation in which we dwell, namely the cogito“ (RC 38) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

44. 2. Looking into Our Minds „Given that we live today in a digital environment – to protect individual privacy means primarily to protect our digital data. In doing this, we want to protect what we consider a fundament of Western civilization, namely the conception of a stable, free and autonomous subjectivity.“ (RC 40) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

45. 2. Looking into Our Minds „We also have the tendency, arising from our metaphysical traditions (…), to give primacy to the individual and not to the community, viewing the individual as something separate or transcendent like God himself. (…) The demarcation line between individuals and society is not fixed.“ (RC 40) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

46. 2. Looking into Our Minds „I believe that today we are transforming the concepts of autonomy and individuality into what we could paradoxically call networked individualities. (…) The principle of solidarity is not to be separated from the principle of autonomy.“ (RC 40) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

47. 2. Looking into Our Minds „Some authors such as Jeremy Rifkin consider the traditional concept of privacy as a relic of bourgeois 19th century society. The concept of privacy is being replaced, or better: displaced, by the one of transparency. Be transparent! And then you are a good citizen.“ (RC 41-42) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

48. 2. Looking into Our Minds „The right to privacy is also turned into its opposite through a right to information, particularly since 9/11 in the US: the right to privacy collides now with the right to security. But „privacy,“ understood as a human right, cannot be conceived apart from its essential connection with Western economic and democratic ideas and ideals“ (RC 42) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

49. 2. Looking into Our Minds „Nothwithstanding its being radically questioned, privacy is (legally) protected at least in Germany by the principle of informational autonomy, which implies a right to data protection against asymmetric situations, as in the case of the electronic environment.“ (RC 42) Rafael Capurro: Privacy

50. 2. Looking into Our Minds „We live in a big European house or a European Ohyake, or a public sphere, but we do not think that Watakusi things are per se bad things, or somehow less worthy than the public ones. Our only problem is that we do not know exactly what to consider as public or as private.“ (RC 45) Rafael Capurro: Privacy