성즉리의 윤리학적 해석

Abstract

This article explores the ethical meaning of the theory of ‘human nature is principle’ by Zhu Xi. First, it means that all beings are advancing toward the moral standard of Taegeuk. Second, it means that human beings, like all beings, are designed to fulfill moral obligations. Third, it means that the purpose of all existence is to produce life (humanity). In this way, the work of establishing the origin of morality through metaphysical reason and Taegeuk is sometimes called moral metaphysics. It is also called correlative thinking in that it assumes that two domains that seem logically different (li and qi, yin and yang, value and fact, etc.) are connected to each other. There is also a critical view that this way of thinking has committed a naturalistic fallacy in that it draws as a conclusion what was not in the premise. However, in Zhu Xi's world, all beings are functional concepts with a moral purpose, and values ​​and facts form an indistinguishable relationship. Therefore, these problems cannot be established in the first place.