근대적 마음관, 내면적 근대성, 그리고 교육: 근대인식론에 대한 로티의 비판적 고찰을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper attempts to investigate in depth the modern view of the mind by reviewing Richard Rorty's brilliant critique of the history of modern philosophy. Modern philosophy since Descartes is considered an ambitious epistemological project that aims, as the mission of philosophy, to establish the foundation of human knowledge as such, which would ground the rest of culture in modern society. The strength of Rorty's critique lies in its showing how the main philosophers like Locke and Kant got confused between the concept of knowledge as a relation to objects and that of knowledge as a relation to propositions in pursuing an anti-skeptical response to the skeptical questions of "How can we know at all?" raised by Descartes. In fact, the history of modern philosophy is described as a history of antiskeptical responses to this philosophical skepticism. This detailed investigation of the modern view of the mind helps us find the structure of modern consciousness as well as the existential condition of modern life by way of revealing the fundamental fallacy of the modern philosophers' epistemological project. The epistemological project, which attempted to go beyond history and to deny the human condition, has to do with the moderns' existential anxiety as well as their epistemological anxiety, which seem to be forced by the condition of modern life that has lost the full trust in the nature. And “the inner space," which actively represents things outside the mind as well as carefully examines them to see if they are accurate, is newly invented by the modern mind. While the interconnected two factors, existential anxieties and the inner space, look essential to the structure of modern subjectivity, it reminds us of the fact that there has been the lack of educational attention to the growth of sound modern subjectivity, especially when subjectivism among the youth is spread in our society today. This paper concludes by stressing the importance of educational attention to the growth of sound modern subjectivity and suggesting how the philosophical skepticism, which was dismissed by Rorty as a fake philosophical problem, can be employed in education as an effective way of cultivating the sound modern subjectivity in the youth, so as to prepare them to properly respond to their existential anxiety in the modern world.