This paper is a critique using concrete cases of the methodology of quantitative sociologists who from an inherent and intrinsic viewpoint in empirical science verify theoretical hypotheses by using inferential statistics. They fall into three traps where at first, an equation is approximated falsely, next, the explanatory power for total variance is poor, and lastly, they cannot see the trees for the forest because of an invalid theoretical model. It will be difficult to make a general theory of sociology as long too much confidence is placed in inferential statistics and the traps associated with this are not overcome.

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A discourse over what science says has played a decisive role in sociology. The scientific explanation of “society” has long been emphasized. However, many of the social scientists explaining about society have not explained about themselves. Social scientists have often claimed a transparent existence and asserted that they were “objective” and detached in their approach to “society”. This paper challenges and reconsiders these assertions and claims from the viewpoint of self-reference. While insisting on “objectivity”, social scientists really have significant influence on society. Who and where is the scientist analyzing and discussing society? By asking for self-reference, it is possible to have a reconsideration of the role of the researcher relative to society that is different from that in which the observer has been eliminated.

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At present, the submission of empirical data is essential in not only in the academic world but also the realm of the general public. However, verification itself is emphasized and data may be fabricated. In this context this paper brings together a discussion of the empirical research in the history of sociology with a consideration of the relation between sociological researchers (sociologists) and “verification.”
Comte considered that sociology should evolve from the metaphysical stage to the empirical stage and emphasized “observation” above all. J. S. Mill criticized the argument of Comte because concepts would be isolated from the objective world and Comte did not explain how to observe invisible, psychological phenomena. In the positivism controversy in Germany, Adorno pointed out the dismantling and ideologization of the integrity of society due to the superiority of methods over contents and the diversity of methods and insisted on the reinstatement of philosophy. Popper pointed out the development of observation with a subjective view and insisted on critical rationalism.
Redefining the words used by Munesuke Mita, the above arguments by the four sociologists can be classified into the problems associated with insistence on “extracted data,” the problems of the relations among “extracted, observed and unknown data,” and the problems of the arbitrariness of “extracted data.” In conclusion, the four sociologists argued that it is important to keep an interest in “extracted and unknown data” while placing oneself in the world of “observed data.”

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This study interrogates the groundwork of disability studies in Japan and suggests theoretical prerequisites for the foundation of disability studies. This is an important attempt because relevant studies cannot be accumulated without a common understanding about the foundation of disability studies. This study addresses this issue by comparing the anti-eugenic viewpoint with criticism against ableism. The former viewpoint by Hori (2014) provided the groundwork for disability studies in Japan and the latter has been discussed recently in Western countries. Through this comparison, the study reveals that the two perspectives are similar in that both of them solve the problem of the social model of disability that treats disability (not disabled persons) as an undesirable situation. However, they are quite different in regard to certain points. That is, the anti-eugenic viewpoint takes the boundary between disabled and non-disabled persons as given and may help does not question the categorization that labels disabled persons as inferior; although it can easily differentiate disability studies from those of other minorities. On the other hand, disability studies based on criticism against ableism do not consider this boundary as a firm division and can target the process in which certain people are treated as disabled persons. However, it may become less sensitive to the differences in disadvantages among disabled persons, sexual minorities, ethnic minorities, and so on. Although both views have strong points, they also have crucial theoretical problems. Taking these issues into account, the author argues that criticism against ableism is more promising as the basic perspective of disability studies because empirical studies can compensate for its demerits. On the other hand, the author also suggests that the anti-eugenic viewpoint is still effective in the disability rights movement. Thus, criticism against ableism and the anti-eugenic viewpoint can supplement each other in disability studies and the disability rights movement respectively.

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The purpose of the paper is to understand the importance of access points that British sociologist Anthony Giddens refers to in his argument of modernity. Access points mean the interface between experts and lay actors in modern society. Before the paper examines this concept, I shall refer to the relationship between self and others from a personal pronoun perspective and develop the discussion further from this point of view.
First of all, the phenomenon that appears as “I” for me, at the same time appears as “you” or “he/she” for others.The difference can be attributed to face-to-face interaction or not. In face-to-face interaction, both self and the other appear as a “you” that respond to the other’s call and this relationship also assumes a “we-ity” understanding with each other. On the other hand, in non face-to-face interaction through a variety of media, whereas one person objectifies another person as “he/she”, the person who is objectified regards the objectifying subject as one of them, assuming “they-ity”, so to speak, as characterized by mass society.
Access points have meaning as points of connection between “we-ity” and “they-ity”, included in “I”. Under conditions of (late) modernity, each individual has the potential to have personal meaninglessness, the feeling that life has nothing worthwhile to offer. Under such circumstances, people have a tendency to approach a variety of closed societies for obliterating those feelings of anxiety. Giddens presents access points to alert us to look away from harsh realities of modernity.

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Judith Butler, one of the most influential theorists of subjection in contemporary society, has been well known for her notion of “performativity” in existing sociology. In Giving an Account of Oneself (2005), she demonstrated her vision of ethics as “ethical connection with others.” The purpose of this paper is to clarify sociological implications of Butler’s “turn to ethics” that has been discussed since 2000. From a theoretical perspective, there is internal continuity from her existing theory of subversion to her argument on Universality, Life and ethics. On the one hand, by reconstituting the theoretical story from “subversion” to “ethics,” this paper relativizes criticism that links her ethical thought to the external context of political and social conditions of our time. On the other hand, according to Butler's “ethical connection with others” that indicates an increasingly opaque relationship between “I” and “You,” the horizons of “empirical description” in existing sociology should be re-examined fundamentally.

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The paper discusses the experience of attachment with respect to music. Focusing on the experience as an ‘event’ that come about through his or her continuous contact with music, the paper explores how people engage in music, how such experience effects one’s behavior and perceptions, and what condition enables such effects. Previous studies including Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural sociology tend to reduce the experience of attachment to the consequences of structurally prescribed mechanisms. In contrast, by looking at the experience of attachment to music from as a ‘generative event’, this paper explores the problem of personal preference or feelings as one of crucial questions for sociological studies. For this purpose we refer to Antoine Hennion’s work on music amateurs. He argues that the musical taste of amateurs should be seen as an actual performance enabled by the concrete activity of amateurs in a particular time and space. In addition to this, I examine the problem of the temporal processes of attachment to music. In conclusion, I suggest an approach for understanding how the experience of attachment to object leads to the opportunity to redefine one’s behavior and perception, locating such experiences in one’s everyday activities.

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This paper examines the concept of “state” by reviewing discussions made by some of the major theories in sociology. It illuminates how sociology itself has developed as an academic discipline through formation of the concept of “society” that overshadows the notion of “state,” while its analysis has been detached from historical context. Some scholars, however, have recognized significance of historicity by revisiting the notion of “state.” These scholars propose that sociologists renew analytical concepts to reflect historicity of each case and reevaluate possibilities for theorizing. With a critical review of discussions and some of the recent trends in the fields of historical sociology and global sociology, this paper suggests that it is necessary to revise the concept of state itself through historically grounded analysis by exploring varieties of experiences. It is necessary to widen analytical and temporal framework to trace changes and continuities in various dimensions in order to grasp these dynamics. By renewing analytical tools and sharing more flexible notions of multiple “states,” we could further broaden the horizon of sociology.

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Munesuke Mita published the book “Kenji Miyazawa” in 1984. Many sociologists treat this book as an exception to the work of Mita because this book considers one literary man and his works and is not conventional sociology. The purpose of this paper is to locate “Kenji Miyazawa” in the overall perspective of Mita’s sociological works. This work can be considered as bridging sociological thought and literary imagination. Mita thinks that Miyazawa’s works represent a transformation of the “modern ego.” Mita finds four forms of ontological motif in all of Miyazawa’s works and Miyazawa’s life; I: Embarrassment of Self, II: Fantasy of Burning Out, III: Feast of Existence, IV: Practice on the Ground. Mita extracts those moments of “turn” between the ontological forms and emphasizes the “turning” characteristic of Miyazawa.
Originally, Mita’s attitude toward modernity was negative. He attempted to conceptualize ways to critique or relativize the modern world. However Mita “changed course” and his attitude toward modernity in the late nineties. Mita refers to the “changing” possibilities of modernity. Mita says that both contemporary and non-modern society have possibility to create freedom. And he planned a new vision of society, which combined both their possibilities. I suppose that Mita’s “change of course” in the nineties originates in his consideration of Miyazawa’s “change of course” in the eighties. In some parts of “Kenji Miyazawa”, Mita connects Miyazawa’s thought to Miyazawa’s “rich” home environment. “Richness” sometimes limits Miyazawa’s thought, but sometimes creates Miyazawa’s fertile “change of course” feelings. I wish to consider why Mita’s analysis of Miyazawa’s “turn” was published in the eighties of Japan as the age of “fertility.” Mita grasped the potential of “fertility” in the Japanese society of the eighties.

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