This study examines ecological issues from the cosmological perspective. Ecological crisis or environmental problems are certainly related to moral and ethical issues. The severity of ecological crisis, however, requires us to look at a deeper dimension of the crisis, beyond the realm of ethics and morality. The modern ecological awareness awakens us to reflect on and contemplate a more fundamental issue concerning the ecological crisis. Understanding the nature of ecology requires a cosmological orientation. The modern scientific worldview, however, has resulted in conceiving the universe as a mere “object” of our research for the sake of human selfish benefit, an anthropocentric worldview. This article is an attempt to recover or re-discover the significance of cosmology in order to appropriate the place of human beings in the universe from the Confucian, especially Korean Neo-Confucian scholar Yi Yulgok (1536–1584)’s perspective. Yulgok’s Neo-Confucian worldview and philosophy are based on his cosmology, and his approach in dealing with human beings and the controversy regarding human nature is also based on his cosmological assumption. Ecological issues are closely related to cosmological issues. The article examines Yulgok’s understanding of the universe to elucidate the implication of the cosmology in relation to modern ecological awareness.
한국연구원은 1970년 5월 한국 민속의 각 분야에 걸친 자료의 수집과 학술적 연구를 목적으로 '한국민속연구소'로 출발하였다. 그 후 1973년 5월 연구 분야를 확대하며 민속뿐만 아니라 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 위해 '한국학연구소'로 개편하였고, 다시 1989년 3월 한국의 국제적 위상의 부상과 함께 한국학 연구의 중요성이 높아짐에 따라 '한국학연구원'으로 확대, 개편하였다. 한국학연구원은 한국학 전반에 걸친 연구를 통해 지역과 민족문화 발전에 기여하며 한국학의 세계화를 위해서 학술활동을 강화하고 나아가 내·외국인에 대한 한국문화 교육을 담당하고자 한다.