• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
• /
• no.68
• /
• pp.283-317
• /
• 2017

Issues over morality and profit usually address relations between moral principles and material gains. In the history of traditional Oriental philosophy, discussions about them were called "Yi-Li zhi bian." The ideas of Confucius and Mencius also contain various discussions about Yi-Li. Both Confucius and Mencius defined Yi as a value concept to represent "natural," "appropriate" or "just" and regarded Yi as an external moral principle on the one hand and an internal moral emotion on the other hand. They had, at the same time, differences, as well. While Confucius placed importance on the external and acquired nature of Yi as a goal of morality, Mencius argued for the internal and innate nature of Yi as the nature of morality partially while recognizing its externality overall. Such Yi is a general term for subjective moral emotions and objective moral principles. Li was a concept of fact to represent "gain," "profit" or "profit-making." Both of them were against private interest and emphasized public interest. As for their differences, Confucius was positive about Li to some degree by saying "One should think of Yi when making profit," whereas Mencius was almost negative about Li and perceived it to be for Yi by saying "One should give up even his own life for Yi." He meant Li's dependence on Yi and also Yi's absoluteness for Ri. Both of them found a mix of opposite features in Yi such as internality and externality, subjectivity and objectivity, specificity and generality, and uniqueness and universality and also in Li such as individuality and specialty and public and private interest. Those features have both disadvantages including theoretical irrationality and logical contradiction and advantages including ideological diversity and conceptual polysemy. If efforts are made to avoid their disadvantages and highlight their advantages, they will provide some elements to consult in the creation of new global ethics required today when East and West are becoming one. In the modern society, the Yi-Li issues can be divided into the issues of morality and economy, personal and social profit, and moral ideal and material gain. If these modern Yi-Li issues are combined with the traditional Yi-Li issues, two paths will emerge over the order of Yi-Li. Of the many perceptions of Yi-Li issues of Confucius and Mencius, the idea of "Yi First, Li Later" can be very useful for creating a new ethics theory to represent "humanism" that we all need today when everyone considers their own pursuit of profit and satisfaction of needs as the best values. Sound Yi-Li relations will be possible only through Yi's orientation toward externality based on internality and Li's pursuit of private interest on the premise of public interest according to the spirit of "Yi First, Li Later."

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.29
• /
• pp.37-68
• /
• 2017

This paper critically examines the role and function of religion prior to the full-out advent of the 4th industrial revolution. We can understand 'The vision of Daesoon Jinrihoe (大巡眞理會)' as a mission to foresee and create a prospective figure for a future society in the person of the Lord on High, Jeungsan (甑山) as a religious dimension. However, the existence ground of religion relies on giving positive meaning to the present time after reinterpreting religious doctrine to reflect changing realities. Jeungsan (甑山) said that the age to come is 'the age of the human majesty (人尊)'. This means that humans will take the lead and control the revolution of scientific technology to progress and benefit humanity. Problems such as 'human alienatio', 'increased polarization', and 'destruction of the environment' still arise and deepen because the motive of 'the Industrial Revolution' was built upon 'knowledge' within the context of a Knowledge-Based Society. Therefore, we can say that the role of religion will newly rise to the forefront in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. Consequently, religion should face matters squarely and suggest viable alternatives. This paper deals with reinterpreting the concept of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence (解冤相生)', one of the four teachings of Daesoon Jinrihoe, within the context of the coming era of the 4th industrial revolution. My research is divided into the following three parts: First, I determined the teachings of Daesoon Jinrihoe and the original meaning of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence', and then I disclosed the way we can reinterpret the general meaning of this concept for application in the ear of the 4th industrial revolution. Second, from the perspective of the religious dimension, I inquired into factors regarding alienation and conflict in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. I focused on human alienation from labor, identity confusion, potential conflicts between humans and post-humans, and the characteristics of the 4th industrial revolution. Third, I examined potential cures for alienation and conflict through the principle of the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence. I tried to enlarge the interpretive prospects of Daesoon's main teaching in light of the era of the 4th industrial revolution through a new interpretation and application that employs the concept of 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence (解冤相生)' in order to cure the alienation and conflict.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
• /
• no.28
• /
• pp.237-266
• /
• 2010

This thesis is to check whether the modernization, promoted mainly in 1960-1970 of Korea may have the relations with Confucian values or have a gap between this and that, and have the question about the idea of the appearance of modernity under Park Jung-hee's government, which is based on the viewpoint that Confucianism would have been made ill use of or have contribution to the nation-directing modernity, especially to the modernization of people. In a sense this thesis demands the overcome of the modern ills such as social dichotomy, leaving out matters of locals, and neglecting the diversities and singularities of creatures, resulted from efficiencies and uniformity caused by nation-centralism. At first Confucianism have represented humanism with a view to finding the mean between the two of locals, affairs, and men. As such it has seek to find centrality, which means my real mind for meeting outward things or the optimum as the mean, the best state between of the two. The political doctrines modified from Confucian learnings including chung, hyo, samgang, and oryun worked as the mechanism for finding nation-directing modernity. As a result we have lived in the modernity, strengthened by nation-centralism. And the leading concepts in related with Neo-Confucianism had people lose their spaces of desire for their own future or got them to be narrow. Accordingly the modernization of Korea means not an integral space in which we can achieve what we want in various aspects, but a deficient space to be complemented, resulted from the centralization of all conditions of life, dichotomous way of approaching matters by nation-centralism, far from being the essence of Confucianism. In the end the rapid modernization by the leaders in Korea has given rise to the concentration politics, economy, and so forth on Seoul as the center. Then we should deeply reflect the deficiency state of centralism like this and how Confucianism would have been responsible for it and will give how to relieve the unequal centralism of nation. Now for this matter we would like to expect our study in the future.v