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Soka University

In 1930, educator Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944), the founding president of Soka Gakkai, published the first volume of The System of Value Creating Pedagogy. “Soka” in Japanese means value creation (“gakkai” means society or association). In essence, to create value means to enhance life. To strive for good, toward peace; to persevere in the challenges to uphold and protect human dignity; to be undaunted by hardship—the essential ideals of Soka education exist in the effort to nurture such creative humanity.

Fellow educator and Makiguchi protégé, Josei Toda (1900-58), succeeded Makiguchi’s philosophy of value creation; Toda’s vision and values, in turn, was succeeded by Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai’s third president. In 1971, Ikeda founded Soka University, actualizing the goals and ideals of Soka education and put forth the following founding principles: Be the highest seat of learning for humanistic education. Be the cradle of a new culture. Be a fortress for the peace of humankind.

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While some are declaring that democracy has had its day, others see this as a time to develop more truly democratic ways of living. Gustav Klimt, Death and Life, 1910

Is Democracy Dead or Alive? Democracy has a future, if we rethink and remake it

Alice el-Wakil, University of Zurich; Anna Szolucha, Polish Academy of Sciences; David A. Teegarden, University at Buffalo; Graham Smith, University of Westminster; Nancy L. Rosenblum, Harvard University; Peter Wilkin, Brunel University London, and Ryusaku Yamada, Soka University

Is it really time to eulogise democracy, or are we rather on the cusp of a new phase in its long and varied life?

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