퇴계退溪와 플라톤의 이원론적 세계관 고찰

Abstract

This paper considers the dualistic worldview of Toegye(Yi-hwang, 1501~1570) and Platon(BC 428~348). Both Toegye and Platon witness the chaos and absurdity of social reality at the time through the chaotic political situation after the scholar disaster and war, and pay attention to Li and Idea as objective and eternal absolute standards as a way to resolve this situation. Toegye, assuming that the world is made up of Li and Ki, distinguishes Li and Ki, emphasizes the reality of Li, which is completely infallible, eternal, unlike the die alive and ever-changing Ki. Plato is also divided into a phenomenon system that can see the world and an ideological system that can be known, and emphasizes that unlike the momentary and ephemeral phenomenon system, only Idea is a true being that transcends time and space. These Li and Ideas exist forever because they have no sound or smell, no shape, no disappearance. Only through this eternity are the criteria for judging people’s lives, so Li and Idea become the moral standards that things should follow. Only when these absolute and objective moral standards are secured can the contradictions and social absurdities of the times be resolved, enabling the realization of a just society or an ideal state. This is the ultimate purpose of their dual worldview.