Commencement address by Yojiro Ishii, the Department of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, 2015
This is an unofficial (but only) translation of the commencement speech of the 2015 graduation ceremony at the University Tokyo, which I attended. The speaker was Yojiro Ishii, whose major is French literature and who was Executive Vice President of the department of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo.
His profile: http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/whyutokyo/indpt_evp_06.html
Japanese manuscript of the speech: http://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/info/about/history/dean/2013-2015/h27.3.25ishii.html
Congratulations to all the graduates today. I also would like to congratulate all the parents sincerely. Our department has 175 graduates, which includes 50 women and one international student this year. As we have had the ceremony for all the graduates in all the departments at the Yasuda auditorium, Hongo campus this morning, for here, I would like to have you in this Arts and Sciences department and rejoice today with you all.
When I think back to the graduation ceremony of this University, I am reminded of the famous speech by an economist Kazuo Ookouchi, who was the then-president of this university in March 1964, when the Olympic was held here in Tokyo almost half a century ago. The notable phrase of the president Ookouchi was, “Be a lean Socrates rather than a fat pig.”
Although I was 12 years old about to enter junior high school at that time, I clearly remember this phrase in my memory since it was reported in the newspapers and television repeatedly. Although I was too young to understand it completely, I was impressed by the fact that he gave us wise words as might be expected of the President of the top university in Japan. Some of you might have heard this saying.
However, some mistakes and misunderstandings exist regarding this speech, actually.
The first mistake is about the subject “President Ookouchi.” Because this phrase itself originated from a famous paper “Utilitarianism” by John Stuart Mill, who was a philosopher in 1900s; President Ookouchi was not the person who invented this phrase.
You may think that he plagiarized J. S. Mill without notice, something not becoming of the president of this university. Of course not. Looking at the manuscript of his speech, there he wrote that “J. S. Mill had once said ‘I would like to be a lean Socrates rather than a fat pig.’” Although there is a slight difference between imperative form and wish form, anyway, this is a proper quotation, since he referred to J. S. Mill in his speech. However, the truth is that the mass media reported that as if President Ookouchi himself invented the phrase, and in addition, people believed it and spreaded this story.
The second mistake relates to the content itself. Actually, J. S. Mill didn’t say either “Be a lean Socrates rather than a fat pig” or “Want to be” at all. In the original text of “Utilitarianism”, it is stated that
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.
And a Japanese translation of the paper was also accurate. We cannot help but think that the President Ookouchi arranged the original text into completely another phrase. Probably he used a phrase that he remembered vaguely for what he wanted to mention. As a result, “a pig satisfied” became “a fat pig” that eats anything as much as satisfied, and “Socrates dissatisfied” became “lean Socrates” that doesn’t easily eat all the things that he/she wanted, I suppose. However, since this arrangement also thoroughly changes its nuance, it might be a problem to introduce this saying as Mill’s. This would be a textbook case of arbitrary information manipulation.
In addition to it, there is even another mistake. Actually, President Ookouchi had skipped this part at the congratulatory speech and he did not mention it then. He undoubtedly wrote it in the manuscript, but omitted it in the actual speech. Maybe he realized the mistake and skipped it intentionally, or carelessly. Since the reports of mass media were based on the manuscript, the fact became “he said”, although he did not say it actually. This is the third mistake.
There therefore exist three mistakes in the famous story that “President Ookouchi said ‘Be a lean Socrates rather than a fat pig.’” The subject “President Ookouchi” was wrong, the object phrase “Be a lean Socrates rather than a fat pig.” was an incorrect quotation from Mill, and furthermore, the verb “said” was not the truth. In short, this proposition is false from the beginning to the end and doesn’t include any truth. However, this fictional episode was passed down and has become even a kind of legendary one.
Now, what I want to say is that more than half of information that you read, in particular, the motley of information on the internet that you get every day, shares similar qualities. I guess the transmitters of the information were not malicious in transmitting dubious news and were just spreading information received. However, copy-and-pastes based on good intentions and retweets that do not know better sometimes confuse people more than malicious falsehood. Once unreliable information is tagged as truth and disseminated to society, no one checks the original information source directly to ascertain facts.
As information is disseminated over many layers, the nuances of the reported information grow more and more to misrepresent the original truth, and are blindly accepted by everyone. As a result, our tendency to critically examine information weakens. It is my honest feeling that this phenomenon becomes more rampant with the spread of the Internet.
However, we must eradicate this vicious practice. Criticize everything, investigate the truth behind every piece of information with your own eyes, and verify it from primary information with your head and feet. I believe this healthy critical attitude is what we should have and what is essential in culture, as graduates of “the Department of Arts and Sciences.”
In the ceremony for all university departments at Hongo campus this morning, a student from the Department of Literature, gave us a really nice valedictory speech. Though I cannot remember it word-for-word since I just heard it this morning for the first time, to summarize it, he said “Any words have a name. Even for anonymous sayings, the name of the person who expressed it is engraved in it. However, we should not become too self-regulated or fall silent. We, in the name of our-selves, should speak out.”
This is so true. Your name is always engraved on any words you utter. It is not only your name, but also the name of our university and our department. Hence, I would like all of you, whatever you will do in your future, never to passively repeat the words of others, but to criticize, verify and examine any information, and to speak out your own, original words in the name of a graduate of this university.
By the way, returning to the pig and Socrates reference once again. When I heard this sentence for the first time as a child, I wondered why we had to be either a fat pig or a lean Socrates. I thought the best would be a fat Socrates.
When looking back to the manuscript of the President Ookouchi, he actually wrote the following phrase, “We would like to be a fat Socrates if we can.” In fact, Socrates does not always need to be lean, so I agree with him on this point. Just a small problem is we cannot easily imagine a fat Socrates. At the Hongo ceremony this morning, the present President Hamada mentioned his favorite phrase “be tough and global.” Here, paying my respects to the two Presidents, I would like to tell you “To be a tough and global Socrates.”
Now, speaking about myself, I end my term of the Executive Vice President of this department this March. At the same time, I retire as a professor of this university as well. It is clichéd and brazen, but as much as today is the graduation day of yours, it is mine at the same time. I am glad to have shared this period of my life with you. However, since today would be the last chance to give graduate students a speech from here, I would like to end my speech with my favourite quote, not “lean Socrates” from the President Ookouchi or “tough and global” from President Hamada.
It is a quote from Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher.
“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame;
how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?”
Please burn yourself in your own fire, before thinking about the consequences. Please find your renewed self from your ashes after that. You cannot rise anew if you cannot burn yourself. At my age, if I burn myself I would end up just becoming ashes, however, you must rise anew many times. Whatever you do in your future, continually burn yourself, and keep finding a new self.
Of course, never to forget to check with your eyes, whether this phrase is really a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche. Perhaps this might be the last joke from me.
I wish you all the best for your future endeavors. Hope the knowledge and critical thinking skills you have nurtured here in this department would shed lights of wisdom into this confusing modern world.
From my heart, sincerely, again. Congratulations on your graduation.
May 25, 2015.
Yojiro Ishii, Executive vice president, the Department of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
(unofficially translated by Shintaro Shiba)