이준모의 생태노동론적 동학 해석의 생태철학적 의미 연구

Abstract

Rhie Tschun-mo, an ecological philosopher, interprets Donghak as follows with his own methodology called ecological labor theory. Heaven's energy, the source of life, is a dynamic life subject that produces and raises all things. The self-movement of this life subject is defined as the action of heaven's energy, that is, the labor of heaven's energy. Heaven's energy is carrying out life-creating labor by demonstrating the skills of living. This interpretation of Rhie Tschun-mo's ecological labor theory shows that Choi Si-hyung's Icheonsikcheon(以天食天) is not eating heaven, but feeding heaven. In other words, it is not Icheonsikcheon, but Icheonsacheon. It can be seen that feeding heaven as heaven is the sacrifice of nature that feeds and saves life through heaven's labor and nature's labor. This self-giving of nature enables a religious ecological understanding of serving heaven as heaven. Leopold's Land ethic is similar to Donghak's worldview in that it established a holistic ecological philosophy while defining the relationship between humans and nature as a relationship of eating through the land pyramid. However, land ethic inevitably fell into the problem of eco-fascism because it lacked the hidden labor of heaven, that is, the concept of nature's labor that feeds life. The question of eco-fascism is, in fact, the question of how the immorality of eating between different species is possible. Through the eating relationship of the life pyramid of land ethic, the organic connection of the life community was effectively explained, but the problem of eco-fascism could not be solved by turning a blind eye to the reality of life that I could live only when I ate other species. On the other hand, Rhie Tschun-mo approaches the problem of eating by illuminating the reality of life at the religious level. At the religious level, heaven's feeding is heaven's serving. Nature gives herself to serve the heavens. This self-giving is nature's permission and forgiveness for the sin of eating. In this process of sinning and forgiveness, symbiosis of the entire ecosystem becomes possible. This self-giving of nature, the labor of heaven, is paired with the ethics of ‘Gyeong(敬)’ in terms of ritualism. Gyeong is a self-denial in which the eater confesses his sin to the feeder. In the end, serving heaven leads to a positive situation in which all things are respected as heaven. As such, Rhie Tschun-mo's interpretation of Donghak has ecological philosophical significance in that it solves the problem of eco-fascism from the religious ecological perspective of Icheonbongcheon(以天奉天).