퇴계와 고봉: 四端七情의 현대적 해석

Abstract

In this paper, the author tries to have some new interpretations when contemporary Neo­confucian scholars understand T’oegye and Gobong’s moral­psychological proposition of Li­Gi. Those understandings include at least three different interpretations as shown below. This paper discusses how SaDan-ChilJeong(四端七情) are understood by T’oegye and Go-bong in the contemporary context. The reason a discussion about SaDan-ChilJeong(四端七情) has an important philosophical meaning is that they clarify how human's mind and mental process work with Li(理) and Qi(氣) which are important concepts in the Neo-confucianism and also they are related to a discussion of human's self-cultivation. Firstly, T’oegye conceived that Li can be realized or manifested by itself without the vehicle of qi which is the ontological and ethical base of li. because Gi is derived from physical desires. On the other hand, Gobong thought that Li can not exist alone without the vehicle of Gi. T’oegye conceived that Li is a Psychological product of human unconsciousness. T’oegye conceived that Li not only precedes Gi, but also moves prior to Gi. Secondly, T’oegye considered la moral as the ideal reality, On the contrary, Gobong thought it moral as the real thing. Thirdly, T’oegye’s proposition of “issuance of li”(li­fa) is nothing but a independent existence that deviates from the ontological origin without Gi. Contemporary scholars asserted that “T’oegye’s moral is based on the originism-theory, On the contrary, Gobong moral is based on the result-theory. In this paper, the author tried to show the contemporary interpretations shown in T’ogye and Gobong’s own writings and documents.