Earticle

초록

영어

Endangered by the ecological destruction and the possibility of nuclear war which make us doubtful about the survival of mankind in the future, our present situation on earth demands us to change our way of thinking and living fundamentally. Between nature and man, between man and man, the new vision which can open the higher dimension of existence, ceasing the attitude of treating others only for the purpose of instrumentalization and domination, should be introduced. This means that the techno-scientific civilization of the West has reached to its limit. Where can we find the possibility of overcoming the limit of the western civilization to ensure the survival of mankind on earth?
To see the origin of the problem we should disclose the fundamental confusion, hidden in the root of the western rationalism, between the essence of being and its instrumental artifact. The rationalism, in spite of its contribution to scientific civilization, has been led, by this confusion, to the state of self-deception in metaphysics and epistemology. Following such a reverse way, it was alienated from the essence of being and existence. We should see that the spatializing habit of intelligence underlies the confusion of the western rationalism. Its tendency of the unlimited reduction does not permit the qualitative differences.
So the western tradition of the philosophy of identity has always played the role of excluding, dominating, and oppressing the heterogeneous others. And as the intelligence is an instrumentalizing function, it looks the world only from the standpoint of utility and interest. Its concern is only to utilize, not to penetrate into the essence of being to sympathize. On the level of intelligence, the essence of being remains invisible.
Intelligent thinking is suitable to the analysis of the inert matter, not to comprehending the nature and the meaning of life. In the form of mechanism, it understands the nature of life in the reverse way. So the way to the true human community is not open to the eye of the intelligence mechanizing and treating everything only as a means. This is the tragedy of the western civilization which declines in the direction of uniformity and mechanical inhumanity, in spite of its exterior material prosperity. In its history the power politics has echoed to the philosophy of identity. The West has not made it compatible with its heterogeneous neighbours.
The true human community starts from the attitude of comprehending, sympathizing and harmonizing with others. In it, the variety and the heterogeneity cease to be the cause of the conflict and the war, becoming the expression of the spontaneous creativity from the spring of life. The possibility of such a progress depends on how profoundly can we penetrate into our real selves, following the internal intuition.
The philosophical intuition gets over the limit of the intelligent thinking. It sees to see, not to utilize. It knows that the frame of intelligent thinking tends to spatialize the world artificially following the interest of utility.
So the intuition, overcoming the superficiality of intelligent thinking, tries to arrive at the deeper essence of the reality itself. The Buddhism has taught that the ultimate essence and meaning of being are the charity and the love. Such an awakening, held in common in society, will be able to overcome the conflict and the war in religion and politics. The teachings of Confucianism can be understood in the same context.
The origin of Confucianism is the humanism and the pursuit of peace. The confucian values like benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faithfulness have the more importance in the techno-scientific society which, under the influence of the capital, becomes more and more a desolate mechanical situation of existence. The Taoist way of life has given the first value on the harmony with the nature. The Taoist tradition gives the warning to the monistic absolutism, immanent in the intelligent thinking, which reduces any various being to one principle. This trend of philosophy of identity, characteristic of the western rationalistic tradition, is only an artificial vanity in the eyes of Taoists. We know that such a philosophy of identity has excluded the others heterogeneous to it. That is why the western civilization became a sort of closed society. From a closed rational society like that of the West, we cannot find the true vision of the community for all mankind. These reflections show that the asian cultural tradition of the Buddhism, the Taoism, and the Confucianism can open the way to the true community of all mankind.
Now, the Asian Community rises as the historical necessity. The high spiritual heritage, the sympathetic solidarity, the union of abundant personal, material, technological resources will be able to raise the Asian Community in the level which excels that of EU and NAFTA. This Asian Community, if realized, can play a role of making peace between the Islamic world and the West. It is not difficult to see that the clash between civilizations in nuclear age will lead to total destruction of earth. So in international politics the logic of power of the West which has no other objectives than domination should be abandoned. Instead of it, the wisdom of mutual dependence between man and man, between nature and man, should be preached as the basic attitude of living. The philosophical intuition into our deeper real selves will open the way to this wisdom. We have seen that, in the long history of Asia, the Buddhist meditation on the true meaning of the being, the life, has given the foundation of peaceful coexistence of societies. Through its cultural tradition of harmonizing with the heterogeneous others, the Asian Community will open the true way to the community of all mankind. The asian philosophical tradition has always taught that we should not treat others as a means only, but as an end in itself. For the progress of such an advanced historical field we should change the paradigm of philosophy with the new vision of the Asian Community.

한국어

세계사의 흐름 속에서 볼 때 아시아 공동체는 이제 역사적인 필연성으로서 떠오르고 있다. 자연과 인간의 조화를 통하여 인류 존속의 가능성을 확보하고 이질적 문명들의 상생적 관계 창출에 의해 인류 공동체로의 길로 나아가기 위하여 우리는 근원적 착각으로부터 비롯된 존재 망각을 극복하여야 한다. 원천적 존재 개념의 회복은 착각과 편견, 타자를 배려하지 않는 좁은 이기적 이익의 체계 속에 갇혀 있는 배타적 문명들을 인류 공동체의 새로운 장에로 이끌어 갈 수 있는 가능성을 열어 줄 것이다. 심오한 존재 이해의 정신적 문화가 오랜 역사적 과정을 통해 사회적 삶 속에 깊이 스며들어 있는 아시아의 문화적 전통이 오늘날 새로운 의미와 가치로서 빛날 수 있는 것은 이러한 맥락에서이다. 이제 이러한 논의를 이끌어 가기 위해 오늘날의 철학은 통상적이고 타성적인 인식과 태도를 근본적으로 바꾸어야만 한다.

목차

요약문
 1. 머리말
 2. 착각과 망각의 역사
 3. 존재론의 근원적 전환
 4. 동일성의 철학과 닫힌 사회
 5. 지능적 삶의 태도를 넘어서
 6. 역사적 필연성으로서의 아시아 공동체
 참고문헌
 Abstract

키워드

열린 사회 닫힌 사회 도구와 본질의 착각 존재 망각 타자성 배타성 동일철학 다양성 다원성 상생과 조화 선불교 기독교 신비주의 무위자연 인류 공동체 아시아 공동체 지능과 직관 open society closed society illusion oblivion otherness exclusion philosophy of identity plurality co-existence and harmony buddhism christian mysticism commu- nity of mankind asian community intelligence intuition.

저자

• 최우원 [ Choi Woo-Won | 부산대학교 철학과 교수 ]

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