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hoGeneral What is Opera Mini? Opera Mini is a fast and compact web browser that allows you to access the Internet on your phone. By downloading the free Opera Mini, you can use your cell phone to access web sites and content, including your mail, community sites, news, blogs and more. Can I use Opera Mini on my phone? You must have a phone with an Internet connection that is also capable of running Java mobile applications — most phones made after 2001 fulfill these requirements. In addition, the Opera Mini download process will tell you if your phone is known to work. Please see also our list of officially supported devices. Do I have to pay for Opera Mini? No, Opera Mini is free. Depending on how you get Opera Mini, your service provider may charge you for the actual download. When surfing with Opera Mini, web pages are optimized and compressed before being sent to your phone. Therefore data transferred to your phone is significantly reduced, making mobile surfing cheaper. Opera Mini is not available in my language. Will it ever be translated? We currently use the same translators to translate Opera Mini as we use for all of our other Opera products. We hope to eventually offer Opera Mini in most languages, but it will take some time. For now, Opera Mini is offered in 50 different languages. How can I make my web pages look good in Opera Mini? To make pages look their best in Opera Mini, you can visit our Opera Mini development guidelines at Dev Opera. Top Installation and compatibility How do I install Opera Mini on my phone? There are three download methods available to install Opera Mini on your phone: SMS (via phone text message), WAP (downloading using your existing mobile web browser) and PC (computer) download. Using the SMS method, you can enter your phone number and receive a short text message with a download link — right on your phone. To download Opera Mini to your phone, visit operamini.com using your phone’s existing web browser, and click on "Download Opera Mini." You can also download Opera Mini to your desktop PC or Mac, and then transfer and install it on your phone via Bluetooth or USB. What are the differences between the "Basic (MIDP 1)" and the "Advanced (MIDP 2)" versions? The Advanced (MIDP 2) version uses more advanced text and image compression algorithms, reducing your waiting time and the amount of data transferred. It also offers more features like page icons, more font options, better-looking menus, smooth scrolling, a built-in clock, content folding and secure connections. See our feature list for more details. Advanced (MIDP 2) phones can often fit large web pages in the phone’s memory. In Basic (MIDP 1) phones, large pages are automatically divided into several partial pages. Advanced (MIDP 2) version Basic (MIDP 1) version You can easily see which version you have when you launch Opera Mini. The Advanced version will show you the Opera Mini logo, while the Basic version will only show you text. What is the purpose of the screen where you need to press keys until the indicator is full? To protect your communication with the Opera Mini server, the client needs to create a secret key. The key needs to be long enough so that it cannot be easily guessed or predicted. The best way to ensure that the key is not predictable is to use a random key. Opera Mini generates a random key for this purpose when you randomly press keys on the keypad until the indicator is full. Where in my phone can I find Opera Mini after installing it? Opera Mini will usually be filed under Applications, Java Applications, File Manager or a similarly named folder that can be reached from the main menu of your phone. Occasionally, it can be found under Games — although this is typically on smaller, older phones. If you can’t find Opera Mini anywhere on your phone (and you are sure that you installed it correctly), please consult your mobile phone manual or your phone manufacturer’s web site. Does Opera Mini work with my Palm device? Opera Mini works with a number of Palm devices. However you may need to install a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) before downloading Opera Mini. Please see our list of supported Palm devices. Does Opera Mini work with my Blackberry device? Yes, Opera Mini works well with BlackBerry devices and Opera Mini 4 also adds optimized menus for the BlackBerry. Please see our list of supported Blackberry devices for more information. Do I need some kind of Internet service from my mobile provider? In general, you will need to have some level of Internet access provided for in your phone service agreement. You need to check with your mobile provider if you have this included in your services. Top Using Opera Mini Can Opera Mini 4 display web pages as one vertical column? Yes. Go to Menu > Tools > Settings and choose "Mobile View". How do I scroll quickly in Opera Mini 3.0 or when I use the "Mobile View" setting? To scroll by page, use the left and right keys. To highlight links or to scroll quickly, use the up and down keys. When using "small font", I can’t see special characters The small font is a font created by Opera. We have not finished the work with this one, so we are fully aware that Russian and other letters are displayed as squares when small font is enabled. Some letters look like black boxes, and I don’t use the small font Opera Mini uses the phone’s default font. If your phone doesn’t support certain characters (e.g. Chinese characters), then Opera Mini won’t support them either. What is the difference between ‘http connection’ and ‘socket connection’? If you choose to use "socket connection," Opera Mini will keep an open connection to the Opera Mini servers. This means that pages will load quicker, and the Opera Mini servers can push updates (for example new bookmarks through Opera Link) directly to Opera Mini on your phone. If you choose "http connection," Opera Mini has to establish a connection to the Opera Mini servers every time you load a page. New updates to Opera Mini will also not be pushed to the phone until a new page is loaded. Note: not all phone models and mobile networks allow socket connections. If you have problems with your connection, try to use "http connection" instead. Top Settings What are the correct APN Internet settings for my phone (APN settings)? To be able to connect Opera Mini to the Internet, your phone needs proper settings. In general, there are two different settings: GPRS/WAP Internet Opera Mini usually needs the Internet setting, and to use the Internet APN. (What is an APN? Have a look on Wikipedia.) To help you get the right settings, we have created a settings page for each phone model that Opera Mini is available for. Please click here to select your manufacturer or service provider, and then make sure to download and activate the correct settings for your phone. How do I manually enter APN Internet settings on my phone? Please consult your mobile phone manual or your phone manufacturer’s web site. I have the right settings, but Opera Mini still doesn’t work There are devices that require a special configuration in addition to the right settings. Some Nokia phones require you to activate the settings as default in all applications. In addition, some Sony Ericsson phones require you to set the Settings for Java. Try our settings page, and if that doesn’t help, please contact your service provider. My settings are not in your overview, but they work! If you have settings that we don’t have on our settings page, please provide us with information using this forum thread. It may take some time before the information reaches the official settings page, but it will! How do I enter APN Internet settings on my Nokia Series 40 phone? Starting from the point where you have already downloaded and installed Opera Mini, but you are unable to load pages: Go into Settings. Go into Configuration. Go into Personal Configuration Settings. Now, press Add New (visible if you don’t have a previous Personal Setting created) or press the Options button. When you have pressed the Options button, choose Add new. When you have pressed Add New, you will get a new menu, which will give several options to choose from. Now, scroll down and choose the Access Point and press Select. (Please note that this option is not available on the Nokia 3220 model and maybe on some more models, you can instead use the Services option instead of the Access Point option on the Nokia 3220.) Do not choose the Web option, since this will not work with Opera mini. Now go into Access Point Settings. Go into Bearer Settings. Go into Packet Data Access Point. Now, enter you APN address corresponding to your provider. Then press OK. Go back to the Personal Configurations Settings menu, where you now should be able to see an Access Point selected. Now press the Options button, and then choose to activate this Access Point. Now you should be able to start Opera Mini, and try to load a link on your phone. If you are still having problems with your Nokia S40 2.0 model of phone, please make sure that you have entered all the required information into the APN setting concerning proxy, user name, password, port etc.

Recent science has shown the fruitfulness of taking the brain to be the seat of all those mental faculties medieval thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas, had attributed to the soul. Therefore, we consider here a variety of results from neuroscience which make it appear that the various human capacities once attributed to the soul are better understood as capacities of the human brain.
One sort of research concerns the localizing of various cognitive and affective functions in specific regions or distributed systems of the brain. This research began by studying victims of brain damage, correlating lost faculties with localized damage discovered during autopsies. With the development of CAT scans (computerized axial tomography), it has become possible to study correlations between structural abnormalities and the behavior of people while they are alive. Further, MRI scans (magnetic resonance imaging) now provide quite detailed pictures of the brain, more easily revealing locations of brain damage. And PET scans (positron emission tomography) allow research correlating localized brain activity with the performance of specialized cognitive tasks.
These varied techniques have allowed for the localization of a vast array of cognitive functions. To show the extent to which current science now studies the capacities once attributed to the soul, let us consider in more detail the account developed by Thomas Aquinas of the hierarchically ordered faculties, or powers, of the soul.
Vegetative Faculties
The `lowest’ powers of the human soul, shared with plants and animals, are the vegetative faculties of nutrition, growth, and reproduction. All of these processes are now fairly well understood in biological terms, especially since the discovery of DNA. The brain is significantly involved here, in that neurochemicals play a large role in appetite and sex drive; while pituitary hormones control growth.
Sensitive Faculties
Next higher are the sensitive faculties, shared with animals but not plants. They include the exterior senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, as well as the four “interior senses,” called sensus communis, phantasia (imagination), vis aestimativa, and vis memorativa (memory). The sensus communis is the faculty that distinguishes and collates data from the exterior senses. An example of this faculty would be associating the bark and the brownness of the fur with the same dog. The vis aestimativa allows for apprehensions that go beyond sensory perception. Here, an example would be apprehending the fact that something is useful or useless; friendly or unfriendly. This sensitive level of the soul also provides for the power of locomotion and for lower aspects of appetite — the ability to be attracted to sensible objects. This appetitive faculty is further subdivided between a simple tendency toward or away what is sensed as good or evil, and a more complex inclination to meet bodily needs or threats with appropriate responses: attack, avoidance, or acquiescence. Together, these appetitive faculties (all still at the sensitive level) provide for eleven kinds of emotion: love, desire, delight, hate, aversion, sorrow, fear, daring, hope, despair, and anger.
Locomotion is now known to be controlled by the motor cortex — running across the top of the brain — and by the efferent nervous system.
Great progress has been made in tracing the processes involved in sensation. For example, signals are transmitted from two different kinds of light-sensitive cells in the retina, through a series of processors, and on to the visual cortex. Smell involves the sending of signals from six different kinds of receptor cells to the olfactory lobes.
The task Aquinas assigned to the “interior sense” sensus communis — the ability to synthesize input from the various external senses — is now studied by neuroscientists as “the binding problem.”
The “interior sense” of memory, identified by Aquinas, has also been researched a great deal. Long-term memory is now understood to arise from patterns of connections within the neural network. Short-term memory is believed to be enabled by a system of “recurrent pathways,” such that information is processed, recycled, and then fed into the process again. The hippocampus is involved in converting short-term into long-term memory, but how this happens is not yet known.
One of the most interesting findings involves the localization of specific sorts of memory. Paul Churchland presents a map of the brain showing regions involved in language memory, with different locations being responsible for verb access, proper name access, common noun access, and color terms. The parietal lobes are an example, as they are involved in our memory of faces.
PET scans make it possible to record localized elevations of neuronal activity. Paul Churchland reports an experiment in which his wife, Patricia, was asked to perform a task involving her visual imagination. The activity in her visual cortex was elevated exactly during the time she was doing the exercise, but not to the same extent as when she received external visual stimulation. Paul Churchland hypothesizes that visual imagination involves the systematic stimulation of the visual cortex “by way of recurrent axonal pathways descending from elsewhere in the brain.”
The vis aestimativa of Aquinas included the ability to distinguish between the friendly and the unfriendly, the useful and the useless. One clear instance of this is our ability to read others’ emotions. While there does not seem to be a single location responsible for this capacity, there are patients whose brain damage has resulted in its loss. For instance, Churchland describes the patient “Boswell,” who suffers from extensive lesions to the frontal pole of both temporal lobes, and to the underpart of the frontal cortex. One, among many, of his mental deficits is the inability to perceive emotion. Churchland reports:
I watched as Boswell was shown a series of dramatic posters advertising sundry Hollywood movies. He was asked to say what was going on in each. One of them showed a man and a woman, in close portrait, confronting one another angrily. The man’s mouth was open in a plainly hostile shout. Boswell, without evident discomfort or dismay, explained that the man appeared to be singing to the woman.
The sensitive appetite postulated by Aquinas was responsible for emotions such as desire, delight, sorrow, and despair. Studies of the etiology of mental illnesses involving inappropriate affect have shown a significant role for neurotransmitters such as serotonin.
Rational Faculties
The rational faculties described by Aquinas are distinctively human: passive and active intellect and will. The will is a higher appetitive faculty whose object is the good. Since God is ultimate goodness, this faculty is ultimately directed toward God. The two faculties of the intellect enable abstraction, grasping or comprehending the abstracted universals, judging, and remembering. Morality is a function of attraction to the good, combined with rational judgment in reference to what the good truly consists.
These higher mental faculties Aquinas attributed to the rational soul are further from being understood. However, all of them involve language. Even if we do not understand how these mental faculties depend on brain functioning, we know that they do because of the close association of linguistic abilities with specific brain areas, especially Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area.
Summary
To review, a variety of results make it appear that the various human capacities Aquinas had attributed to the soul are better understood as capacities of the human brain. In fact, these capacities are attributable to specific regions of the brain.
These conclusions are not uncontroversial. First, there is the argument within neuroscience over specialization versus globalism. That is, many would argue that each of the mental capacities listed above is much more a result of global functioning of the brain, not localized functioning. We need not get into this argument; all that needs to be pointed out is that the regions cited above are involved in the specified functions, since all we know is that, if a region is damaged by illness or injury, a corresponding function is lost. Second, there are still some philosophers and scientists who maintain a dualist account of the mind and brain. They point out that however precise science may become in associating mental functions with the brain, science will never prove it is the brain performing the functions. It may simply be the case that functions performed by an independently existing mind, or soul, are just highly correlated with brain functions.

Over the course of the modern period (ca 1650-1950) a variety of reasons have emerged for rejecting the sorts of dualism separating body, mind, and soul. These reasons encompass theological, philosophical, and scientific considerations. Theological reasons include: (1) the claim that dualism is not biblical and that theology ought to reject Greek conceptions in favor of the original Hebraic conceptions of the Bible; (2) the related claim that resurrection of the body (rather than immortality of the soul) was the original Christian account of life after death; and (3) the claim that dualism has led to an un-Christian depreciation of the physical creation.

There have always been philosophical problems connected with the concept of the soul. For example, Plato said that the body could not affect the soul. If this is so, then how could the senses provide it with perceptual knowledge? In the modern period, the problems have become acute, leading most philosophers and many theologians to conclude that a different account of the nature of the human being is required.

The philosophical reasons for this change have largely to do with the difficulties (or impossibility) of explaining how a nonmaterial entity could interact with a material body. In addition, these problems have been exacerbated by a variety of scientific developments.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is considered the first modern philosopher, and he has had a tremendous impact on all later conceptions of the person. Descartes distinguished two basic kinds of created realities: (1) extended substance, meaning all material things, and (2) thinking substance, including angels and human minds. (Note in Descartes the shift in terminology from `souls’ to `minds.’ These concepts overlapped for ancient and medieval thinkers, and English-language philosophy has generally used the term ‘mind’ rather than ’soul.’).

The problem of mind-body interaction suddenly became more difficult in the Modern period because a version of atomism came to replace Aristotelian conceptions of matter. In Aristotle’s theory, matter and form were correlative, with form being the active principle and matter being the passive. So the soul, as one type of form, was conceived exactly as that which animated, or moved, the body. In the early modern scientific conception of matter, especially as developed by Isaac Newton, matter was also seen as inert, or passive. But matter in Newton’s conception, rather than being moved by immanent forms, was moved by external, physical forces. This raised a dilemma: if we maintain the immateriality of mind, then there is no way to account for its supposed ability to move the body. Alternatively, if we interpret it as some kind of physical force, its effects ought to be measurable and quantifiable, just like any other force in nature. However, no "psychic force" is yet explained or accounted for in modern physics. To solve this dilemma, a variety of philosophical theories have been tried. For instance, "psycho-physical parallelism" holds that mental events and physical events occur in parallel chains, only appearing to interact causally because of a pre-established harmony. And, "epiphenomenalism" claims that brain events cause mental events, but mental events have no causal effects of their own. Psycho-physical parallelism has had very few supporters. Epiphenomenalism is problematic because it simply denies that the mental, qua mental, makes any difference in the world. Both of these theories see brain events — which are presumably governed by the laws of neuroscience, and ultimately by the laws of physics – as making things happen. This leads to the problem of what it means for a physical (brain) event to cause a mental event.

These problems have led most secular philosophers to conclude that we are better off not postulating minds as entities at all. We may speak, instead, of mental events, but these are still identical with physical (brain) events, in some way. That is, we call them mental events as we experience them `within’; physical as we imagine a neuroscientist looking at the brain from without.

As we have seen, early modern science’s new conception of matter created philosophical problems for mind-body dualism. Many philosophers have judged these problems to be insoluble, and this, in turn, has led to a wholesale rejection of the concept of a substantial mind.

1) My own life as a starting point and the ultimate end The most important thing for life studies is that one’s own life should be both the beginning and the end of life studies. In life studies we should never detach ourselves from the problems and think ourselves as exceptions. Knowledge or discussion completely separated from one’s own life should not be included in life studies. Mere analysis of ethical concepts or social structure cannot constitute life studies. Instead, for example, a private narrative of my own experiences is a good starting point for life studies analysis of human psychology and ethics. I performed this process in the book How to Live in a Post-religious Age and Painless Civilization. Life studies comes close to literature in this sense. Subjective knowledge is as important as objective knowledge in life studies. We need to explore the ways to share subjective knowledge among us. 2) Pursuit of "life without regret" The pursuit of life without regret is the ultimate end of life studies. In life studies, all intellectual activities, for example, reading, research, analysis, contemplation, discussion and writing, are concentrated and integrated to this end. We should be aware of the fact that our life in this world is limited. We are all going to die sooner or later. Hnece, as mentioned above, life studies should be an attempt to acquire an interdisciplinary, organized knowledge, intellect, and wisdom that help us live our limited lives without regret. In the book Painless Civilization I presented the idea of "the central axis" existing on the basis of ourselves, by following which we are able to live our lives without regret. 3) Confrontation with our own desire and evil Life studies encourages us to keep our eyes on our own "desire" and "evil" that are deeply engraved into our heart. We cannot entirely escape from our own desire and evil. What is needed is not to unconditionally accept them, but to forgive us who cannot escape from them, and to seek ways to continuously try to overcome our tendency to return to them. We have to explore wisdom and social system to support that attempt. Moral imperatives alone cannot change our fundamental attitudes. In the book Painless Civilization I presented the possibility of transforming "the desire of the body" into "the desire of life." And in the book Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics I presented the idea of "retroactive method from evil." 4) Critique of contemporary society, civilization, and scientific technology A search for the meaning of life usually tends to aim at personal healing and self-realization, but we should go forward to the next important step, the critique of contemporary society, civilization, and scientific technology, because contemporary civilization cleverly takes away from us the meaning of life and the possibility of living a life without regret (See Painless Civilization). This critique should lead to the reconsideration of the existing scientific methodology and social systems. We should make clear what kind of society is preferable in order for all of us to be able to fully pursue lives without regret, and how we can create its social system. A transformation of the self without changing society is not the goal of life studies. 5) Inquiry into the world of life All life on the earth are closely connected with one another. Humans are no exception. We cannot live without killing and eating other creatures. Our live is supported by fresh air, water, crops, and domesticated animals. One of the most important features of life studies is to think about the meaning of human life in relationship with other creatures on the earth, and with nature — the matrix of life. After we die, our bodies return to the earth and the air, that is to say, all parts of our bodies spread back to the matrix of life, hence, the meaning of human life and death should also be considered from the viewpoint of our relationship with nature and the environment. Many creatures on the earth, including humans, share a lot of genes and the process of evolution, hence, our lives without regret cannot be separated from our relationships with other creatures and the natural environment. (See Concept of Inochi(life), and Life Torn Apart). 6) The third way between religion and science Life studies deals with the journey of our irreplaceable life, which cannot be scientifically replicated, because we cannot live any moment of our life twice. At the same time, life studies says nothing about God, the transcendent being, and the afterlife, because we can’t have certain knowledge about them. Life studies does not deny science or religion. Life studies simply follows a different path from science and religion. Life studies seeks post-religious spirituality of life, death, and nature, without using the language of religion. We help promote dialogue between life studies and religion, that is, religious approaches to life studies, and life studies approaches to religion. 7) Practices of life studies There are three interrelated approaches in the practices of life studies. a) Systematic approach: Collaborative research aiming at interdisciplinary knowledge and wisdom for life without regret. b) Dialogue approach: Examination of existing disciplines from the viewpoint of life studies, and discussion between life studies and these disciplines. c) Personal approach: A personal practice of examining one’s own life for solving one’s own private problems by using life studies concepts and methods. 1) Painless civilization The endless tendency in our civilization to eliminate pain and suffering makes us totally lose sight of the meaning of life that is indispensable to human beings. I called this "painless civilization" in the book Painless Civilization. >> See section 3. 2) Fundamental sense of security In the book Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics I presented the idea of "the fundamental sense of security" as a key concept for future life studies.This is "a sense of security with which I can strongly believe that even if I were less intelligent, ugly, or disabled, at least my existence would have been accepted equally to the world, and if I should succeed, fail, or become a doddering old man, my existence will continue to be accepted equally to the world. This is the basis of our life upon which we keep sane in this society" (cited from the book, and this paper). I believe that this is a really important concept in the coming age of new eugenics. 3) The central axis This concept was introduced in the book Painless Civilization. There are three layers in personal identity, namely, surface identity, deep identity, and the central axis. The central axis is the most basic one, but in everyday life many people forget the layer of the central axis. The central axis is a path by following which I will be able to say, when I die, that I am happy to have been born. One’s central axis can be found by dismantling his/her deep identity. This concept is closely connected with that of "life without regret." 4) The desire of the body and the desire of life In the book Painless Civilization I distinguished two sorts of desires, namely, "the desire of the body" and "the desire of life." While the desire of the body seeks to protect pleasure, pleasantness, and vested interests, the desire of life tries to discard them, dismantle the current self, and open oneself to an unexpected future. It is our "desire of the body" that promotes "painless civilization." This desire of the body takes away from us the deep "joy of life" that could visit us in an unexpected way when we transform ourselves by going through pain and suffering. 5) Reality of swaying I When we encounter a situation we have never wanted to experience, especially that of profound self-contradiction, we are emotionally swayed by it, and wish to avert our eyes from the situation. Japanese feminist, Mitsu Tanaka, called this kind of experience "the sway of the confused self." But paradoxically, only people in this swaying situation can truly understand the deep suffering of others and enter into the relationship of mutual support. "The reality of swaying I" is the concept introduced in the book Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics in order to enlarge Tanaka’s idea. "The reality of swaying I" is closely connected to "the advent of an absent being." 6) Relationship and irreplaceability All beings in the universe, especially all living things on the earth, are incorporated into the web of “relationships.” They can not exist without these relationships. At the same time, every being in these relationships is fundamentally “irreplaceable” to each other. Life studies urges us to view everything from the perspective of correlation between "relationship" and "irreplaceability." (see Concept of Inochi(life).) 7) Three natures of human life In the series of essays Life Torn Apart, I insisted that three natures are deeply engraved on humans, namely, "the nature of connectedness (with all living things)," "the nature of self-interest," and "the nature of mutual support." These natures sometimes keep in harmony, but sometimes come into conflict with each other. I believe that it is important to see the relationship between humans and the world of living creatures from this perspective. and more… Research Programs I would like to propose the following research projects. 1) Philosophy of life Philosophy of life includes clarification of problems such as "What is life without regret?" and "Why must we live while we all die in the end?" >> See section 2 2) Critique of contemporary civilization Life studies should include a fundamental reconsideration of our society that is driven by capitalism, materialism, and scientific technology. The question is whether people can live a life without regret in contemporary society where they are obsessed with pleasure and pleasantness. >> See section 3 3) Research on images of life One of the most important researches in life studies is the study of images of life, death and nature ordinary people actually have in different areas of the world. It would be of great help to researchers in life studies if they could know what imaginations and ideas people have in contemporary society. My paper, "The Concept of Inochi(life)," shows a result of preliminary research among Japanese. This research is still going on. Comparative research among countries will be needed. 4) Criticism of bioethics Criticism of "bioethics" is needed because it often lacks an insight into the meaning of life, and it also lacks a critical view of the essence of contemporary civilization that has created bioethical problems. Though bioethics research is expanding around the world, it’s time to renovate it by introducing the viewpoint of life studies. I tried this in my book, Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics (2001), and other papers; some of them (1 2) were written in English. And it is important to connect bioethics to "environmental ethics" because our attitudes toward life are closely connected with our attitudes toward nature, the environment. I wrote a series of papers in Japanese. 5) Research on human nature and social factors that interfere with our attempt to change We seek to live a good life and create a good society, but we have almost always failed. I suspect there might be human nature and/or social factors that interfere with our attempt to change our society and ourselves. I propose to research these interfering factors from the viewpoints of various disciplines including biology, psychology, history, and social sciences. This will be a totally interdisciplinary approach. This is our future research. 6) Research on the fate of social reform movements This research has a close connection to the above one. We have had various social reform movements up until the present, for example, Marxism, totalitarianism, American capitalism, various religious communities, etc., but there were few movements that succeeded in creating a sustainable community where severe oppression against minorities could not be found. We have to know the end results of their movements, in order to think seriously about the limitation of "life studies." Future research. 7) Criticque of science from the viewpint of life studies The aim of science, especially natural science, is to increase objective knowledge. However, as science progresses, a set of questions that science has avoided asking are starting to emerge before us as unavoidable questions, such as the question of "the meaning of life", the methodology of handling "qualitative data", the interpretation of the inner emotions or values of the other persons, and so forth. We need a new method to handle this kind of "subjective knowledge," and by using this method we will be able to share important experiences and wisdom. As a first step to attain this goal, I propose to criticize science from this perspective, and go on to the second step, the creation of a new methodology for dealing with subjective knowledge. Future research. An untouchable area in human life In the near future various advanced technologies are expected to invade the human body, the DNA, and the brain. It may be time to set up an untouchable area in human life where technological interventions will have to be prohibited. It is required to protect the untouchable area from our own desire. 9) Life studies approaches to various disciplines I think it is an interesting idea to introduce some basic ideas of life studies to various disciplines or movements, such as psychology, nursing, sociology, religion, ethics, cultural studies, and so on. Life studies would probably be able to stimulate those disciplines, and as a result, fruitful dialogues might occur. I tried this in the book, Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics (2001), and criticized the framework of contemporary bioethics from the viewpoint of life studies. I am thinking of a similar approach to ecology. Many other approaches will be possible. 10) Connection of academic research to researcher’s own life The most important thing for life studies is that a researcher hem/herself can live his/her own life without regret. In this sense, academic research that will not help transform the researcher’s own life should not be called "life studies." Life studies encourages a researcher to rethink his/her actual life and transform it, and after that, express that painful process in some form in order share it among us. Morioka expressed the process in the book Painless Civilization (2003). This process should lead to the transformation of the social system and our intellect.

What is philosphy of life?

"Philosophy of life" constitutes one of the most important pillars of life studies. The task of philosophy of life is to think deeply about the question, "What is life, death, and nature?" Philosophy of life was a major branch of philosophy in ancient times in Europe and Asia, however, especially in the context of contemporary philosophy, it disappeard from the scene. (The exceptions were vitalism, Nietchze, Bergson, and philosophy of biology). There is no category of "philosophy of life" in Yahoo! or Google . But today, people’s interest in bioethics, terminal care, and environmental issues is rapidly growing. It is time to reconstruct "philosophy of life" as a major branch of contemporary philosophy. The following lists are some of the research topics I have in mind.

1) Philosophical inquiry into some basic concepts concerning life, death, and nature The ultimate aim of life studies is to help us live our limited lives without regret, hence, first, we have to make clear what is the exact meaning of "limited life." We are all going to die sooner or later, but what does this mean to us exactly? Surprisingly, this is an extremely hard qestion to answer. This question is closely connected with another one, "what happens when I die?" But we cannot know anything certain about this question. Hence, the question of life studies would be like this, "What is the meaning of "limited life" when we do know nothing about life after death?" Life studies does not deny religion. Life studies follows a different path from religion, keeping touch with religious people with mutual respest. And we have to make clear other important questions, such as "What is life without regret?", "We are all going to die in the end, so why must we live?" "What is the difference between "life" and "existence"?", and so on. Probably "life without regret" means that when I die I can really believe that I am happy to have been born. Some of the topics were discussed in the book, Painless Civilization (2003). Research on images of life mentioned in the section 1 would be of great help.

2) Three natures of human life See guiding concepts 7. I think I have yet to investigate this topic more philosophically. This would provide us with a new research perspective on environmental philosophy and ethics. I am planning to write a new paper that enlarges my former works.

3) The idea of "the fundamental sense of security" See guiding concepts 2 and Morioka’s works 5 above. We have to make clear what this concept really means in terms of philosophy. For example, the difference between "the fundamental sense of security" and "human dignity," or the difference between "the fundamental sense of security" and "basic human rights" should be clarified.

4) Relationship and irreplaceability See guiding concepts 6 above. I called this the metaphysics of "relationship and irreplaceability" in this paper and in the last chapter of Brain Dead person. This concept needs more elaboration.

5) Social philosophy based on life studies The ultimate aim of life studies is to help us live our limited lives without regret. We have to make clear what kind of social principles and social systems are needed in order to attain this goal, and make clear how they are different from other social theories. Future research.

6) Life and ownership What is the conceptual relationship between "I" and "life"? People who justify suicide may insist that "one’s life" belongs to him/herself, but is this the same as saying that the person owns his/her "life"? The problem of "life and ownership" would probably one of the most important research topics in philosophy of life. This has a close connection with the question "What is the relationship between "body" and "ownership"?,"

7) The problem of killing and/or eating other creatures We eat meat, fish, and vegitables. We kill animals and plants for food. Most modern philosophers have justified this kind of killing and eating, but is this really justifiable from the viewpoint of life studies? Some environmental philosophies insist that all life forms on the earth are equally valuable, but if this is true, then what we are doing to creatures should be severely criticized. Some philosophers distinguish sentient animals and nonsentient creatures, but isn’t this a convenient excuse for humans? With the help of biology, ecology and anthropology, we have to tackle this difficult problem. * I am planning to write a book on philosophy of life. And as a preparation for the book, I will publish some essays and papers. I would like to communicate with the readers concerning these topics. * Personally, I interest in religious approaches.