• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.28
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• pp.103-131
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• 2017

As the establishment of self-identity is based on 'Relationships of Mutual Beneficence,' the formation of 'Relationships of Mutual Beneficence' is the only road to the security and confirmation of self-existence. But given that our ordinary life almost entirely consists of actions objectifying others, the formation of 'Relationships of Mutual Beneficence' is by no means easy. The formation of 'Relationships of Mutual Beneficence' should be based on morality, controlling self-desire, and not objectifying others. Philosophy based on a priori reasoning describes self-control over selfdesire as the domination of the body through a priori reasoning. But this practical philosophy cannot present a self-evidential internal motivation behind moral actions. Due to this, the application of moral order given by a priori reasoning in response to reality is likely to be reinterpreted on basis of self-interest. With regards to this, the 'propensity towards sympathy' is given as new moral norm. The 'propensity towards sympathy' as emotion is direct and consistent given that feeling occurs prior to thinking. The 'propensity towards sympathy' is intuitive in the sense that it is an instinctual response preceeding a reasoned judgment. The 'propensity towards sympathy,' as a natural moral emotion, is self-validating given that all human beings know it and practice it. But previous studies on the 'propensity towards sympathy' have an obvious limitation because they adopt phenomenological approaches to the 'propensity towards sympathy' which eschew the investigation of morality. Though they present the 'propensity towards sympathy' as a natural emotion based on body rather than reason, they do not philosophically explain the 'propensity towards sympathy.' Thus the 'propensity towards sympathy' as a natural moral emotion is likely to be interpreted as a subjective and relative moral norm. This paper philosophically explains that the 'propensity towards sympathy' is a universal moral norm on the basis of Merleau-Ponty's 'flesh.' 'Flesh' is formed as the entanglement between oneself and others and presents the 'propensity towards sympathy' as its philosophical basis. In other words, 'flesh' formed as the mixture or entanglement between oneself and others is the material foundation upon which one can activate the 'propensity towards sympathy.' This paper's approach to the 'propensity of sympathy' can be desribed as a phenomenological approach to the 'propensity towards sympathy' as a universal moral norm.

• Journal of Science of Art and Design
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• v.10
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• pp.5-50
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• 2006

The terminology "human body" simply means a physical body but also more often, as an object in art works, carries symbolic concepts incorporating the whole history of human lives. Human body has been employed as an artistic object capturing physical body, delivering artist's idea expressing life indicators from different standpoints of times and places. This point of view about human body in art works has in fact rather short history since 1960's when modern thinking paradigm focusing upon rationality and reasoning has begun declining and on the contrary when the body used to be the servant of the mind and soul for a long time has begun attracting artist's attention as a real entity from the viewpoint of dichotomy. During the 1960's, frequent performances in Pop art and of Fluxus showed that the human body has been an important media for artistic communication after importance of body performances had been raised in Action painting in 1940's. The human body became a more determined media in body art works that had got into stride after Yves Kline's conceptual works applying body and its traces. These kinds of art works have continued and consolidated into the Feminism came into blossom in 1980's and into fragmentated and disembodied body art trend in 1990's. Through development of trends in body works, human body now might well be regarded as a clue provide from individual identity with implication over the world. This thesis is to analyse in semiotic way main works of Kiki Smith who is a representative artist devoting to Feminism and proposing extended significance of human body. In the analysis process of works done by two great artists with histrorical background of art trend in order to find and open an significance horizon of human body, semiotics and bodism are therefore perceived as pertinent and applied as basic tools. The first stage of analysis is to get the significances emerged in between expression part and contextual parts, which are separated structually from the most basic level. The study deals with body works furthermore in the way of structual cohesion of the expression and the context from the view of A J. Greimas' Structural Semantics and tried to build up a basic frame for the extended significances of human body. This thesis is, on the other hand, to attempt to contribute for extension of disembodied and fragmentated body discussed in the structural semantic frame earlier by Julia Kriesteva who delivers abjection concepts and phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty who enables to overview relationship between the body and the world from the viewpoint of Bodism, further into interpretation level. The other works are Kiki smith's that showed epics about death in mid-1980's, detailed humbleness of vulnerable human body exposed to dichotomy and fragmentation in 1990's and religion and mythology incorporating wouln healing in 2000's and henceforth. Through the analysis of Kiki Smith's representative work 'Pee body', it is verified and confirmed that fragmentated body showed beyond boundary gap of the human body and ultimately tends to imply human healing owing to divine maternity. Bodily symbols in Kiki Smith's are extended to the universal world to imply human life and death on the one hand and religion and mythology of human wound and divine healing one the other hand. This thesis through these process and results of analysis is in a broad context, to emphasize that human body as objectified text has a key indicator role to understand world as well as semiotic extension in art works in late 20th century so that we might confirm bodily symbol as a cultural context constitutes a section of contemporary visual arts.