• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.5 no.1 s.9
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• pp.55-92
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• 2005

The factors contributing to the formation of an important scientific concept in South Korea and its circulation in the society are the scientific knowledge that had been already formed, matured, and established in the U.S.A, Europe and Japan and has been introduced into Korea, and the institutions that have been formed during the recent modernization in South Korea. The concept of 'genetic information' cannot be an exception in this context. The concept of genetic information is the one that has been extended and intensified by the genomics and bioinformatics formed and matured through the Human Genome Projects from the former concept of inheritance or heredity within the framework of classical and molecular genetics. The purpose of this study was to find out 'how the production structure of genetic information in South Korea has been formed', under the perspective of the conceptual, epistemic, and institutional holisticity or integratedness in the concept and knowledge production structure idealized in Western advanced nations. The discourse of genetic engineering popular in the mid 1980's in South Korea has catalyzed the development of molecular biology. However, the institutional balance that had been established for the biochemistry departments in Natural Science College and Medical College was not formed between the genetic engineering and genetics departments in South Korea. Therefore, they were unable to achieve the more integrative and macro-level disciplinary impact on life sciences, largely due to institutional lack of the capable (human) genetics departments in some leading Korean colleges of Medicine. In genomics, the cutting-edge reprogramming and restructuring of the traditional genetics in the West, South Korea has not invested, even meagerly, in the infrastructure, fund, and research and development (R & D) for the Basic or First Phase of the research trajectory in the Human Genome Project. Without a minimal Basic Phase, the genomics research and development in Korea has been running more or less for the Advanced or Second Phase. Bioinformatics has started developing in Korea under a narrow perspective which regards it as a mere sub-discipline of information technology (IT). Having developed itself in parallel with genomics, bioinformatics contains its own unique logics and contents that can be both directly and indirectly connected to the information science and technology. As a result, bioinformatics reveals a defect in respect of being synergistically integrated into genetics and life sciences in Korea. Owing to the structural problem in the production, genetic information appears to be produced in a fragmented pattern in the Korean society since its fundamental base is weak and thin. A good example of the conceptual and institutional fragmentedness is that 'the genetics of individual identification' is not a normal integrated part of the Korean genetics, but a scientific practice exercised in the departments of legal medicine in a few Medical Colleges. And the environment contributing to the production structure of genetic information in South Korea today comprises 'sangmyung gonghak'(or life engineering) discourse and non-governmental organization movement.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.137
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• pp.151-191
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• 2016

Kant and Lacan strongly criticized the epistemological premise of formal logic. However, Lacan was opposed to Kant in terms of subject, object, knowledge and truth. From the viewpoint of Kant's transcendental logic, formal logic does not have the ability to represent the nature of truth. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of Lacan's psychoanalytic logic, Kant's transcendental logic misunderstands or only partially represents the state of things. But I would like to try to criticize the epistemological premise of the two forms of logic. Transcendental logic takes the evident and new function in that it has studied the necessary condition of content rather than the form of thinking which formal logic considers as his object of study. Transcendental logic evidently studies the categories which dominate our way of thinking. Can we say that the 12 categories which Kant provided are sufficient in explaining the necessity of thinking? Lacan's psychoanalytic logics tells us that Kant's categories are only a kind of metaphor related with hypothesis that tries to explain the possibility of synthetical judge a priori. Is Lacan's psychoanalytic logic sufficient in explaining the possibility of science? It is not sufficient in explaining the objectivity and strictness of science, for it depends on metaphor and metonymy which are useful to literature and unconsciousness. I would like to try to synthesize Kant's transcendental and Lacan's psychoanalytic logic in terms of structure-constructivism which combines both formal and dialectical logic, which is consistent with the ideal of human science, and not blinkered science. My conclusion is that Kant's ethical and esthetical theory should be modified though Lacan's psychoanalytic logic, and Lacan's theory of the unconsciousness revised by Kant's transcendental logic.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.36
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• pp.1-34
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• 2020

It has been suggested that Jeungsan's prophetic poem that starts with the verse "For about seven or eight years, there will be a castle in the ancient country [七八年間古國城] ⋯" originally comes from Prophecies of Jeong Gam (鄭鑑錄). Despite Jeungsan, himself, obviously having been critical of that text, this claim has become the basic grounds for discourse suggesting that Jeungsan was not only interested in Prophecies of Jeong Gam but also considerably influenced by the text. However, the claim itself was formulated due to misunderstandings of the Chinese poems that had been included in A Compilation of Secret Prophecies Hidden in the Family-clan of Seogye (西溪家臧訣). These poems pursue a different ideological orientation than the poem from Prophecies of Jeong Gam. Ultimately, the Chinese poem in the verse 84 the chapter titled, Prophetic Elucidations in The Canonical Scripture of Daesoon Jinrihoe cannot provide a basis for the claim that Jeungsan was strongly influenced by Prophecies of Jeong Gam. This claim that Prophecies of Jeong Gam made a deep impact on Jeungsan and Daesoon Thought was based on three other texts outside of those that appear within verse 84 of Prophetic Elucidations. The first supposedly-related line is: "Heaven opens at the period of the Rat (Ja 子), Earth opens at the period of the Ox (Chuk 丑), humankind starts at the period of the Tiger (Ihn 寅)." This line comes from from Shao Kangjie's Book of Supreme World Ordering Principles (皇極經世), and the line could be quoted idiomatically as an expression in the Joseon Dynasty. Accordingly, attempts to relate Daesoon Thought to Prophecies of Jeong Gam are a distortion that arise from the assumption that Jeungsan had a significant interest in Prophecies of Jeong Gam. The second related line is "At the foot of Mount Mother (母岳山), a golden icon of Buddha has the ability to speak [母岳山下 金佛能言]." That line is nearly identical to the verse "On the summit of Mount Mother, a golden icon of Buddha has the ability to speak [母岳山頭 金佛能言]." Yet, Jeungsan changed '頭 (du, the summit)' to '下 (ha, the foot or under)' and express his own unique religious prophecy. This allusion to the prophecies of Jeong Gam is actually a criticism designed to disprove the earlier prophecy. Third, is the verse, "The form of Buddhism, creation of daoism, and propriety of Confucianism [佛之形體仙之造化儒之凡節]," which is characteristically related to Daesoon Thought. This verse can only be found in the prophetic text, Prophecies of Chochang (蕉蒼訣), and it is provided a main source when alleging that Prophecies of Jeong Gam was an influence on Daesoon Thought. However, considering the context of Prophecies of Chochang and the year of its publication (it is assumed to be compiled after 1950s), this does not hold water as Jeungsan had already passed into Heaven several decades before that time. This disqualifies the verse from being a basis for asserting Prophecies of Jeong Gam as an influence on Daesoon Thought. Contrary to the original assertion, there is a considerable amount of evidence that Prophecies of Chochang absorbed aspects of Daesoon Thought, which were simply revised in a novel way. There is no truly compelling evidence underpinning the argument that Prophecies of Jeong Gam had a unilateral impact on Daesoon Thought. There seems to be a great deal of confusion and numerous misinterpretations on this matter. Therefore, the claim that Daesoon Thought, as developed by Jeungsan, was influenced by the discourse on dynastic revolution and feng shui contained in Prophecies of Jeong Gam should be re-examined at the level of its very premise.