• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.54
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• pp.77-113
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• 2017

In late Chosen(朝鮮), the concept of illustrious virtue(明德) became an important issue of debate. However, previous studies did not focus on how the concept emerged as an issue. This paper aimed to explore the problem, and for this purpose, paid attention to Horak(湖洛) debate. Oiam(巍巖) Yi Gan(李柬), in the course of discussion with Namdang(南塘), finally argued that mind(心) clearly distinguishes from temperament(氣質). The goals of the claim were to clearly divide mind and temperament, and to emphasize mind's control of temperament. Through this, he wanted to reject the possibility of being affected by temperament in aroused state(未發). And he presented the concept of illustrious virtue as a critical evidence supporting his argument. He argued that because mind is same with illustrious virtue, it has a special status that essentially distinguished from the temperament, even if both mind and temperament are all material force(氣). This argument led to new discussion trend in the debate. it was to form a definition of the mind, based on defining the relationship between spiritual perception(虛靈知覺), temperament and illustrious virtue. The trend was reflected in the debate on 'Whether illustrious virtue is the same for everyone or varies from person to person(明德分殊)'. Through the process of analysis in this paper, we could detect a tendency that definition of mind has become an independent subject.