儒家의 文化 개념과 한국의 문화철학에 관한 試論

Abstract

This paper investigated the meaning of culture[文化] in the Confucian tradition, and discussed the character and significance of the cultural philosophy of East Asia and Korea. Under these objectives, this paper examined the meaning of 文 and 化 based on the literature, and discussed the East Asian cultural philosophy through four themes. According to the Confucian literature, the 文 means humanities, and the 化 means the teaching. Thus culture[文化] is defined as ‘A wonderful and excellent thing that human beings made using or imitating nature’, and at the same time, ‘The effort to recover, reproduce, and express the best naturalness of the object to which the human artificial is applied as much as possible.’ Under these definitions, the characteristics of cultural philosophy were discussed in four themes. First, the issues of universality and uniqueness of culture. The universal standard is recognized in the Confucianism which is assumed the nature as universal reality and the affirmation about nature and return to it. Here, universality is not the confrontation with the uniqueness, but the basis of uniqueness. In addition, the significance of universality can be established by uniqueness. Therefore, the relation between universality and uniqueness in the perspective of Confucianism can be summarized not as mutual opposition but as the relationship between essential substance[體] and modification of the substance[用]. Second, the issues of making a discrimination between high-class culture and popular culture. According to the meaning of culture[文化], universal standards are bound to become nature and humanity. So, if we discriminate the high-class culture, the contribution to the restoration and implementation of human nature becomes the standard. Therefore, if a cultural act confirms and elevates human good nature, it is a superiority and it may be called as a high-class culture. In the opposite case, it can be said that it corresponds to the inferiority. Third, the issues of development and change. The cultural idea of East Asian Confucian thought does not disclose development theory. As we can see from the discussion of universality and uniqueness, the culture in each region and age is a myriad modification to reveal the good nature of human beings and reproduce nature in each situation. In the Confucian traditional, therefore, culture is understood as a change, that is, an extension of diversity rather than development. Fourth, the issues of the doctrine of free will and cultural determinism. This is represented by the discussion of whether humans cultivate culture or culture cultivates human beings, that is, the relationship between culture and human beings. Since the maximum value of culture in the Confucian tradition is human nature[性] and nature[自然], human beings can expand the diversity of culture and culture itself can not expand human beings. Therefore, the doctrine of free will and cultural determinism are an argument in Western cultural philosophy. According to the cultural idea of the Confucian tradition, culture and human beings aim for unity. Culture is not a fixed thing. As long as it is a human product, the history of mankind is the history of culture, and the intellectual history of mankind remains a cultural phenomenon. As long as cultural philosophy is ultimately aimed at understanding human beings, reflection and criticism of all culture from past tradition to today is indispensable, and through this self―understanding, our identity and direction can be measured.