On Daisaku Ikeda’s Interpretation of the Concept of Ōbutsu Myōgō and Its Consequences for Political Science

This paper differentiates political science from political philosophy, following Giovanni Sartori’s perspective in defining political theory as a separate disciplinary field. Not only is political theory a common referential field of study for political science and political philosophy, but it is a domain of methodological and epistemological research as theoretical philosophy. Theoretical philosophy is a discipline that contributes the use of critical hermeneutics derived from Paul Ricoeur’s speculative work. Essentially, it is a general sable, procedural approach for both the historical-social and political-economical sciences. If the validity of this approach depends on its method, its necessity depends on its contemporary cultural and socio-political tendencies, which strongly thematise the question of recognition, the philosophy of the human being and religion. It is within this context that Daisaku Ikeda’s Buddhist philosophy of the ‘human revolution’ inserts itself as a practical-speculative conception, which, for political application, crosses and intertwines the Buddhist concept of Ōbutsu myōgō.