As a pivotal figure of modern Japan, Fukuzawa Yukichi requires no introduction as his intellectual project symbolized a core aspect of Meiji modernization. However, as a non-scientist, his consumption of and approach to modern science remains adequately unexplored. The focus of this paper is therefore the relationship between modern science and the works of Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Modern science, whose early-modern European predecessors had been explored in the Edo period, provided revolutionary approaches to philosophical and technological issues, ranging from race categorization to weaponry. Its acceptance indicated a departure from traditionally accepted worldviews, demonstrated by Fukuzawa’s promotion of liberalism and his anti-Confucian rhetoric.

The nature of this anti-Confucian sentiment was not unique to Fukuzawa or Japan as similar currents were observable in neighboring areas like China. How then did Fukuzawa treat modern science? This paper will explore Fukuzawa’s works to explore how he incorporated the terms, concepts, and disciplines of modern science into his intellectual enterprise.

Besides a broad overview of how Fukuzawa employed various terminologies and concepts of science, it will examine his engagement with the specific disciplines of eugenics and Darwinism, the former of which, now debunked as a pseudoscience, functioned as a legitimate scientific discipline and the latter of which continues to produce controversy in its social applications. The paper also hopes to shed light on the complex relationship between liberalism and modern science.