A Japanese Physicist Meets Socialist Natural Philosophy: SAKATA Sh5ichi (1911-1970) and Dialectical Materialism

SAKATA Shdichi, known as a physicist who contributed significantly to the development of the theory of elementary particles, held a sincere belief in the Marxist philosophical view of nature. He acquired the basic core of this worldview by reading the classics of Marxism as a youth and later added original insights via correspondence with others or development of his own inquiry into the microscopic world. Several visits to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China also deeply impressed Sakata. This article examines the features of his understanding of Marxist natural philosophy and the factors that helped him establishing it. By focusing on Sakata's experience of the international/domestic exchange with Marxists, this study will also reveal how the orthodox and unique part of his understanding of dialectical materialism divided and conjoined.