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Capturing the philosophy of founding ICU and liberal arts with President Iwakiri

Interview series of President Iwakiri × SDGs Promotion Office (episode 2)


“Tsunagaru Ethical” is Web-based media which publishes interview articles created by/for ICU students. We interview professors, asking about classes and thoughts. We hope our articles will help you “being you” someway how.


This is one of the articles under the interview series of President Iwakiri × SDGs Promotion Office. As the second episode, we focused on thinking about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the foundation of ICU and its philosophy, and liberal arts.


＜About President Iwakiri＞

Completed his doctoral program at the University of Tokyo and L' Université Paris. After serving as the Director of the Admission Center and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, he was appointed as the President at ICU in April of 2020. Professor of Literature. His specialties are Modern French Poetry, French drama, and French Literature.

Machii）Since its founding, ICU has been contributing to lasting peace. This movement started before the SDGs was created. What do you think about one of the ICU’s missions of lasting peace and SDGs?


President）ICU was originally established for creating peace after World War II. One of the reasons why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted to ICU’s policy is because of having peace and human rights at the foundation of ICU. Also, I believe that the peace within the ICU’s philosophy is not just something we have received but something we build and constructt ourselves. In that sense, I believe that SDGs’ value of “moving forward” is very much in line with ICU’s founding. For instance, the natural environment is something we have been protected since the founding of the school in order for people to be themselves. The existence of the ICU itself has been something that archives SDGs. ICU also has the idea of “university of tomorrow,” which means “tomorrow is better than today.” We believe that the future has deeper understandings and creates better results. We learn and research at ICU in order to achieve and create something that we don’t have now. Learning at ICU is the process of “development” itself and in that sense, we can say that ICU’s philosophy is related to SDGs.


Machii）I think in order to achieve SDGs, it is necessary to solve intertwined problems, and for that critical thinking is required rather than single-minded thinking.


President） Critical thinking is a mental attitude of not taking anything for granted, but objectively verifying whether there is evidence. I think it is very important. It is necessary for us to be aware of what we are creating might damage other things. In this respect, working on SDGs at ICU is like a social experiment. Considering the current global trends and energy issues, the question arises as to whether we can maintain our lifestyle when we accept the initiatives for SDGs at ICU. To achieve absolutely and totally zero carbon dioxide emissions at ICU, the university’s financial basement may be weak. In pursuit of the ideal, it is necessary to analyze data critically.


Machii）From the perspective of Liberal Arts, how can ICU contribute to SDGs?


President）The “Arts” in Liberal Arts doesn’t mean art we enjoy in daily life like drawings, music, dramas… The term means academics so this naturally includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills. But the Arts is also a concept that goes one step further, which is connected to emotion, passion, and intuitive inspiration. For example, talking to friends or professors at the campus is not the same as learning how to calculate. I think that those daily conversations are full of serendipity, and I think that is Liberal Arts. Each ICU student has different specialties in the academic world, and that is common at ICU so maybe you already have unconsciously done it, but talking about things and theories they learned in class daily with students from other specialties is a precious learning process. I believe that we can change the world through learning and exploring things that are rooted in human emotions, not through theories only.


Machii）Personally, I have the impression that SDGs are mostly about what is necessary to live, and mentality or the inner workings which are necessary for achieving SDGs is not discussed a lot.


President）I’m from Literature major and I agree that it is hard to connect humanities and developmental aspects of SDGs. This means that there is something that the concept of SDGs cannot cover. In fact, social goals and material reformation are easily set as a goal, but when we achieve those material and social goals, how will the human mind be fulfilled? I believe that human beings will be led to art and thoughts after achieving their goals. I think it is important to take action by thinking purposes of achieving goals. On the other hand, SDGs can be seen as technical and social goals. And I believe that there must be understandings for human beings. The concept of SDGs exists because of humanity, which is similar to the concept of Liberal Arts. Lately, it is necessary for the society to say “we are working on number # of SDGs,” but as the SDGs will be implemented in the society more and more, and critical thinking and dialogue will spread over the citizens, SDGs will be connected to inner activities.

Thank you for reading the article this far.

Feel free to submit your comments/opinions/questions through the Google Form attached below.

We’ll also be happy if you could read the other two articles with President Iwakiri.

See you in another story!


(English translation: Shiori Saeki)



 
 
 
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