<i>Walden</i> in Tokyo

Abstract Stanley Cavell wrote this article on the occasion of the first publication of one of his books in Japanese. The Senses of Walden, translated by Naoko Saito, was published by Hosei University Press in 2005. The paper was subsequently presented at two colloquia held at Harvard University in the development of the present collection. The article recalls aspects of the writing of his book on Walden, interweaving these with reflections on the relationship in philosophy between East and West and questions of mutual understanding. The discussion focuses particularly on Heidegger’s ‘A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer’ and on questions of culture, high and low. Many of the articles that follow in this special issue, ‘Walden in Tokyo: Stanley Cavell and the Thought of Other Cultures’, pick up topics and themes that are addressed in Cavell’s discussion.