천인합일적 사유의 인식론적 고찰

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to do a comparative analysis on 董仲舒's thought of 天人合一 from the viewpoint of 'the moment of negativeness' of organic philosophy. This study especially applies the characteristic of organic opposition to the analysis on 董仲舒's theory of 天人感應(mutual response between 天 and 人). Joseph Needham, who analyzed, for the first time, the Chinese traditional theory of 天人合一 with the method of organic philosophy, made an analysis on the theory of the positive and the negative and Neo-Confucianism from the organic viewpoint, obtaining excellent results in the analysis of Chinese traditional theory of knowledge. However, Needham's work, which connected natural science with philosophy, has had difficulty being accepted because of our individual major based academic climate. In this study we will accept his organic analysis and at the same time will review the epistemological aspect of positiveness and negativeness included in organic thought. This study also regards organic thought as a kind of Eastern dialectic, comparing it with Western dialectical logic. 董仲舒's thought of oneness includes the unity and the positiveness between the subject and the object of recognition and at the same time the opposition and the negativeness. The negativeness means limited negativeness(bestimmte Negation) and so does the positiveness. In this study we will epistemologically examine this fact together with the circumstance of the age when Confucian scholars was in political power under the imperial age of China, and will also analyze the meaning of 知行合一 and 災異說 from the viewpoint of unity and opposition. The similarity between organic thought and the dialectic of F. Hegel, K. Marx and F. Engels is the dynamic analysis on the movement, the change and the relation of things. However, The concept of materiality used by dialectical thoughts is hardly shown in the Eastern concept of 天人合一 and so is in the case when setting up the opposition between an epistemological subject and object. Nevertheless, even though the work to newly analyze the moment of negativeness of organic philosophy is somewhat limited, it will offer us an opportunity to have the critical mind for the thought of 天人合一 which is the root of Eastern logic.