1970년대 함석헌의 민주화 운동과 비판의 철학 - 『씨알의 소리』를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Ham Suk-heon was a representative figure in the Korean democratizationmovement in the 1970s, but the content of ‘democracy’ he advocated was inconsistentwith the ‘democratic protection’ and ‘democratic restoration’ discourse of thedemocratic movement in the 1970s. His philosophy of resistance was broader, deeper,and more fundamental than any intellectual in Korea at that time. Ham Suk-heon sought ‘becoming the people’ in their resistance against the rulingpower. For him, ‘resistance’ was the process of self-revolution of the individualas well as the formation of the ‘whole’ people. While other critical intellectuals’discourse on liberal democracy lay in the normalization of representative democracyclaiming the return to the pre-Yushin constitutional state, Ham Suk-heon insisted‘liberal democracy’ as the political subjectification of ‘people’. Ham Suk-heon’sphilosophy of resistance came from his ideas that emphasized the life and peaceof the people, and he stood on the side of the lower ones to understand the politicalthings and to criticize the ruling power from their standpoints. His philosophy washighly transcendental, religious, and enlightening, but his media campaign, whichtried to listen to the voices of workers, peasants, and women, was a realistic attitudeto personally practice "resistance”. Ham Suk-heon was an intellectual who reflects on the flow of the times in orderto escape from the mainstream flow of the contemporary era ‘to pursue advancedcountries, to compete, to speed up quickly, to materialism’. He was not fundamentallydevoid of dichotomous epistemology, such as seeking the Orient against the Westand seeking spirit against the material. However, his philosophy of respect for peace,freedom and community, and for their resistance on the side of the poor and oppressed, as the basis of democracy, still provides an important reference pointfor constituting a new democracy in neoliberal times.