동아사아 자연관의 몇 가지 특성들

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to suggest some characteristics of the East Asian concept of nature by comparing it with the Western concept of nature. Though the concept of nature has been defined with a great variety in all ages and countries, it mainly has been used by contrast with 'the artificial', 'man', and 'the supernatural'. The East Asian concept of nature suggested in this paper has the characteristics of the lack of mechanistic world view, the search for loose forms, the domination of moral or practical concerns, and the lack of viewing natural law as a legislative ideal. In the above mentioned first characteristic which is the lack of mechanistic world view, it is said that the East Asians have viewed natural objects as living things, not as inanimate objects. In the second characteristic which is the search for loose forms, it is claimed that while the Western concept of internal nature of things has been regarded as strict one which was based on the principle of contradiction, the East Asian concept of internal nature of things loose one which was made by practical concerns of performers. In the third characteristic which is the domination of moral or practical concerns, it is said that because the East Asians have been preoccupied with moral or practical concerns, their conception of nature has meant natural law as a constant law, which was mainly contrasted not with 'man' or 'the supernatural', but with 'the artificial' or 'conventional'. Lastly, in the forth characteristic which is the lack of viewing natural law as a legislative ideal, it is claimed that though it was true that the East Asian concept of nature has been a kind of natural law, but it has served as a constant law according to which any positive law has been judged, not as a legislative ideal as the modern concept of natural law meant.