Abstract
Watsuji Tetsurô (和辻哲郎, 1889-1960) developed his theory of "cultural climate" (fûdo, 風土) as a phenomenological approach to concrete spatio-temporal structures that "surround" human being in the world. In his work Fûdo (Fûdo-ningengakuteki kôsatsu 風土 - 人間学的考察), Watsuji delineates a concept of "interrelatedness" (間柄), which is considered to be a substantial basis of the "cultural climate" or milieu of the world.
According to him, the "interrelatedness" of humanity and the respective milieu are inseparable and mutually determining, which means that both are in a state of constant change. However, on the other hand, Watsuji tends to view fûdo as relatively stable within a particular culture in the course of history.
From the perspective of the contemporary trends, the unfolding process of globalization as a homogenizing element undermines human attachment to the physical space, as well as cultural and national differences, which seems to be a prerequisite of Watsuji's concept of fûdo. Thus it may seem that the Watsujian theory tells us little about the ethics of inter-relationality between human being and his milieu in the context of globalizing world of globalization.
In the present paper, it is my intention to examine the possibility of application Watsuji's concept of "cultural climate" in the framework of globalizing world by means of the "interrelatedness". I contend that the "interrelatedness", as a fundamental structure of human being within fûdo, embraces an ethical insight that enables Watsuji's view to shift from a theory of climatic (or national) characters, as it is often perceived to be, to an approach to cohabitation within a rapidly changing environment of a shared milieu.