茶山 丁若鏞의 관용(tolerance) 관념 : 서(恕) 개념을 중심으로

Abstract

This thesis, as part of a study into the idea of tolerance especially in the Joseon Dynasty's Confucianism, aims to search for the basis of new understanding about the recent theory of tolerance through the concept of 'Seo (恕: equal consideration of myself and others, tolerance)' of Dasan Jung Yak-Young (丁若鏞, 1762-1836), who struggled to reconstruct a community for the new Confucian civilization in the late Joseon Dynasty. With the principle of 'equal consideration of myself and others' applied, the concept of 'Seo' was based on 'In (仁: benevolence)' determined as 'pursuing reciprocal coexistence with others'; this contains more active and comprehensive implication than the original, passive concept of 'Seo' and reinterpreted the older concept. In short, Dasan recognized the original idea of 'Seo' as tolerance only at the level of 'passive consideration' which after all distorted the concept of 'Seo' of Confucius and Mencius primitive Confucianism and he believed that the true ideal of 'In' would be realized when understanding on 'Seo' as a rule of 'active consideration' that can replace the original concept is restored. Likewise, if 'tolerance' just fundamentally means 'enduring yet unwillingly,' it cannot be a standard of appropriate relational morality that can heal the conflicts of the multicultural age at which so many 'different' individuals must coexist. Instead, under the ultimate goal of pursuing mutual, reciprocal coexistence of humans [仁], Dasan's persuasion that the active morality of Seo (恕) under which one truly understands others by putting himself in their place is needed and this can be presented as an alternative for the concept of tolerance, which is most needed especially for the multicultural age.