• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.41
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• pp.71-92
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• 2014

A series of the tragic 16th-century Sahwas sent Toegye into the depths of despair. In the face of the ensuing social disruption in which any criterion or direction is utterly lost, he could not but to reexamine the problem of human nature and good and evil. For Toegye, criterion or direction is connected with Principle, and human nature and the problem of good and evil are related with Mind. In other words, these problems are none other than the question: "As the subject of history and society, how a human being can set principle in a real world and realize it? How one can successfully control his wants and feelings with his rationality?" Toegye proposes that while laws and regulations should be reformed when they are outdated, good laws and regulations are not necessarily to be discarded. He also warns that ideal governance is not likely to be realized if only too conservatives take the lead while radicals, depended upon exclusively, would create too many problems.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.47
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• pp.139-172
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• 2023

This study aims to look into the concept of Human Mind and Moral Mind and the issue of their axiological interpretation in Daesoon Thought. In the Song dynasty, the concept of the Human Mind and Moral Mind was understood as indicating two aspects of the universal Human Mind. Discourse on this theory was undertaken by scholars such as Cheng Yichuan (程伊川), Su Shi (蘇軾), and Zhu Xi (朱熹). The differences between the Human Mind and Moral Mind were interpreted as issues of cultivation. The discussion of the Human Mind and Moral Mind were established through a systematic theory by Zhu Xi, and this developed into various forms of discourse and ideological stances thereafter. One of the most important issues of the Human Mind and Moral Mind theory was its axiological interpretation, which was divided largely into three patterns. One was to interpret the Human Mind and Moral Mind as evil and good respectively (proponents included Cheng Yichuan and Zhu Xi in his early theories), the other one saw them as value-neutral and good (proponents included Zhu Xi, Toegye 退溪, and Yulgok 栗谷), and the last one interpretation held them as pre-evil and pre-good (Dasan 茶山). As the Human Mind and Moral Mind can be seen as a universal human issue, the examination of those patterns in the Confucian tradition would be meaningful for understanding the Human Mind and Moral Mind as a theoretical base in Daesoon Thought. In Daesoon Thought, the Human Mind and Moral Mind are defined as private and public respectively, but no further explanation is provided regarding these items. If we infer by considering the two in the light of the overall ideology and values that Daesoon Jinrihoe pursues, the Human Mind can be said to represent basic biological desires such as clothing, food, and sexual satisfaction all of which are human vital activities needed for the preservation of the human race. The Moral Mind can be seen as a mind that is set upon practicing morality and realizing the ideological aims of 'supporting the nation and comforting the people,' 'vast saving all creatures,' and achieving 'harmony and peace for humankind.' However, the conscience and the selfish mind, which are related axiologically to the Human Mind and the Moral Mind, are defined respectively as good and evil and explained in a relatively systematic way which includes conceptual claims and details on the origin of these aspects of mind. The reason why the discussions of the conscience and selfish mind are more systematically described than the Human Mind and Moral Mind seems to be that issues relating to the conscience and selfish mind are more directly applicable to matters of religious doctrine.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.37
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• pp.297-328
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• 2021

This paper aims to find out from what perspective Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholars evaluated and understood Yang Xiong's guiding principles and literature at the micro level and to reveal the academic trends of Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholars. This topic is approached as follows: first, an evaluation of Yang Xiong's way of living as a 'senior state official of Wang Mang (the controversial Emperor of the short-lived Xin Dynasty)'; second, Yang Xiong's literary character and his literary works; third, Yang Xiong's writing style; and fourth, Yang Xiong's view of good and evil. These can be summarized in three main ways: One is to agree with Zhu Xi's criticism of Yang Xiong as a 'senior state official of Wang Mang' and dismiss his guiding principles, academic achievements, literature, and other accomplishments. Most of these negatives have been found in Confucian scholars who are especially enthusiastic about theology. Examples include Hong Jikpil, Wi Baekgyu, Kim Wonhaeng, and Lee Sangjeong. In the case of kings such as King Yeong-Jo, the assessment of Yang Xiong is quite similar. The following assessments of Yang Xiong are positive though. Positive assessments are presented from two different views. One is a balanced approach that covers both the positive and negative aspects of Yang Xiong. For example, Heo-Kyun's understanding. Another positive view can be analyzed from three perspectives. The first case is when the scholars assessing Yang Xiong were not deeply influenced by Zhu Xi's criticism of him. Seo Geojeong and Seong-Hyeon are examples. The second case are those that broke away from theology or adhered to Silhak [Practical Studies]. Yi-Ik is an example. Third, assessments from scholars who posited that truth was of a pluralistic nature. Jang-Yu is an example of such scholars. Regarding theories of human nature; however, there was consensus among Confucian scholars that Mengzi held that human nature is good, and thereby it was common to criticize Yang Xiong's theory that human nature was a mixture of good and evil. From an ideal micro perspective, Joseon Dynasty Confucian scholars' different assessments of Yang Xiong show that their understanding and evaluation of Yang Xiong differed in accordance with their own differing worldviews and ideas.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.11-23
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• 2004

Bomun(Treasure Pattern), by its formative beauty and its symbol of good-luck, is mixed well with other patterns and produces another luxurious and gorgeous pattern with them. This study is to sort out Bomun patterned materials in the relics of Chosun dynasty, to classify the types of patterns according to its elements and to its arrangement, and to analyze their aesthetic characteristics in terms of fabrics, methods of putting patterns on fabrics, their usage, and symbols and aesthetics. The types of Bomun, in terms of their composition elements, are classified as Individual type, Compound Type Ⅰ, which is made with another Bomun, and Compound Type Ⅱ, which is compounded with plant patterns or with animal patterns. In terms of its arrangement, it is classified as Dense type, Sparse type, and Picturesque type, and the most popular type is the pattern of the dense type. Bomun was depicted in the fabric through a technique called Jimunbeop. It was used on both men's and women's clothing. It was mostly used in Po of men's clothing and in Jeogori(jacket) of women's clothing. Bomun connotes the meaning of good-luck, beating off evil spirits, Yin and Yang ideology, noble tastes, etc.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.189-213
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• 2018

This paper aims to show how Thomas Hardy overturns conventional ideas in opposition and eventually disrupts the hierarchical order of ideas in the Victorian society of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Divided into four sections, such as feeling/reason, purity/impurity, femininity/masculinity, and death/life, it examines how these binaries are deconstructed in the heroine's tragic life journey. The heroine Tess of the book, who boldly crosses the boundaries marked by traditional society, turns her image as a fallen woman into that of divinity, erasing the boundary between evil and good. In doing so, Hardy leads the reader to question the system of established values and reveals the illegitimacy of absolute values, thence stressing what all one can grasp in this world is nothing else than an absence of a central value. The relativity of truth and the power of overturning established value systems advertised in the book have significant implications for today's readers as well as for the Victorians.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.29
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• pp.112-119
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• 2001

In general, the definition of criticism is making a constructive analysis between good & evil, right & wrong, and beauty & ugliness. Just as the literature, art, music, and architecture welcomes productive criticism in order for further advancement in each professional field, constructive criticism in the field of interior architecture must be activated stance it would be as useful as in other fields to upgrade the level of design quality If the constructive criticism were to be taken properly in the benefit of further advancement in particular design, then the criticism must hale a proper criteria in order to examine and review the design work objectively However, as the design symbolizes cultural interpretation and reaction towards better creativity, we expect design to be mutated in many different directions. As the limit of Interior architecture shares limitless possibilities in today's society, it seems that we need to set up a guidelines of design criticism in order to support the further development of the area of interior architecture.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.38
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• pp.303-328
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• 2013

The purpose of the present article is to understand moral instruction through Ethics written by Spinoza and enable the implications drawn from its understanding to give shape to lesson plans. In his representative book titled Ethics, Spinoza speculates ultimate substance from the metaphysical perspective and converges it into ethics. The ultimate substance, which is a cause of itself, refers to immanent cause of all things that have numerous attributes as essence. All things in nature develop the substance and exchange influence among individuals at the same time. A human in the influential relationship perceives things based on one's beneficialness and assigns moral words of good and evil. However, a human, who is a mode of substance, should escape from morals that are superficial, relative, and objective, in order to realize nature. Becoming a more complete human requires going through moral imagination in reality but going beyond the imagination ultimately. Moral instruction premises the moral imagination of a student who exists as a mode; meanwhile, it is a study to escape from the influence of moral imagination. Good and evil arise from the limitation that an existing human has, but if a life is to preserve the necessity of ultimate substance, moral instruction can be defined as the processes of alleviating the influence that hinders a human's nature from being realized. Giving shape to this processes with the basis on the Spinoza's epistemic argument, moral instructional texts can be composed of stages to form more adequate moral ideas about moral subjects gradually and cumulatively. The moral instruction like this expects moral awareness which is relatively perfect than the present moral imagination. Furthermore, with the teaching and learning like this sustained, it is expected that ultimately the limitation arising from sensible perception can be overcome to approach the realization of a human's nature.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.53-75
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• 2018

It is commonly emphasized that the metaphor of the monster is a rhetoric universally used to identify the "main enemy" of a society, for its effective function is seen as useful for the uniting of citizens to bend together to survive or succeed before the external threat. The problem of this metaphor is that it homogenizes and dehumanizes the heterogeneous individual members of the subsequently identified enemy group. This study emphasizes the importance of some traits of the posthuman subject, such as the flexibility and the multiplicity of consciousness, to overcome the otherizing binary perspective which is commonly held regarding the concepts of good and evil. To observe specific dimensions of the posthuman consciousness, we analyze three films based on Spanish history and reality: The Spirit of the Beehive, The Day of the Beast and Pan's Labyrinth. All of these films progress around the figure of the enemy-monster(s), showing how to transgress the dichotomous structure of consciousness that defines the self/good dividing it from the other/evil. The heroes in the films seek to overcome the fear about the monster, and approach him to discover new ethical horizons, that can emerge only when an individual's consciousness chooses to stay on the border between the established beliefs and the unfamiliar voice of the dangerous stranger(s).

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.213-236
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• 2011

The negative symbol of 'American imperialism', which was reinterpreted superimposed on the symbol imposed on Japanese imperialism in the 1945 Liberation of Korea, was more amplified added by the experiences of the bombing and massacre by US troops during the Korean War. In other words, the symbol of the extreme 'American imperialism' in the liberation in which even the role of America contributing to the liberation of Josun had been denied had continued for a long time adhered to and amplified through the war. Thus, unlike the current emphasis laid by North Josun, the assertion in the form of 'American imperialism=Korean wolf' is an idea made from the mixture of fact and fiction combined with the theory of imperialism rediscovered in the liberation and the experience of massacre during the Korean War. And this superimposed symbol for American imperialism naturally causes the problem of being superimposed also on the symbol of North Josun. And the extreme formalization for 'good' and 'bad' sides was based on the dichotomous compositions of beauty and ugliness, good and evil. The ground for saying that an act by a good side is 'unconditionally' legitimate is nowhere found. The anti-American viewpoint rediscovered in such an extreme form results in one aspect of criticism and resemblance as a result of being locked up in the same violence which one has rejected by oneself. The anti-American viewpoint going on in the form of anti-imperialist nationalism leaves nothing except another terrible retaliation for terrible brutality. It is self-evident that one can never get out of the enchanting power of imperialism which North Josun has continuously criticized in a ring of violence and vengeance, the familiar grammar commanded by North Josun literature.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.187-198
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• 2020

With the cultural background of whiteness I did examine the universal meaning of absolute good, the special of psychosis, and the fantastic of femininity and memory/record. As an example I analyzed the symbolic meaning of white used in Korean films. Unconditional goodness, white as a generality: White color in all the films of good-evil confrontation falls into this category. The most obvious and the simplest configuration are the black-white dichotomy. In Nameless Gangster: Rules of Time(2011), The Merciless(2016), Asura: The City of Madness(2016) and The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos(2019), white is the absolute good but it is not limited to a fair key figure. Paradoxically, black is not given only to the side of absolute evil. White is used to be a flexible visual device that reflects the socio-political situation without changing the meaning of the general good. Psychosis and pills, white as a peculiarity: The visual function that emphasizes sado-masochism in the absolute good and the universal symbol of white extends to psychotic specificities such as hysteria. In all the films creating horror, white symbolizes the mentally disabled and the pill for healing. Femininity and haunted white: White of absolute good is expressed by the socio-cultural tendency of femininity and the black-white contrast of vision is applied to the gender difference. In general the women's sexuality is emphasized in color red, but white is arranged in the background. In TaeGukGi: Brotherhood Of War(2004), 71: Into The Fire(2010), My Way(2011), The Front Line(2011), Roaring Currents(2014), Northern Limit Line(2015), The Battle: Roar to Victory(2019) and Battle of Jangsari(2019), white given to female figures sticks to the traditional femininity such as motherhood, sacrifice and weakness. The concept of specters is applied to desires, memories/records, history, fantasy, virtual/reality and social media images. The film history capturing to list memories and moments brings up the specters of socio-political genealogy. Most of films aiming for socio-political change are its examples and white constituting Mise-en-scene records to remember a historical event in Peppermint Candy(2000), The Attorney(2013) and A Taxi Driver(2017).