福沢諭吉の教育思想に関する一考察

Abstract

The number of articles on the matters related to Fukuzawa Yukichi that have been published in Korea is not larger than expected. Prior to the 1990s, no article on Fukuzawa had been published, and only 9 articles have been published since then till May 2004. Even if we consider the period until 2017, only additional 7 articles have been published. In this way, not much research has been conducted on Yukichi Fukuzawa in Korea, and this research field is said to be still premature. Moreover, the theme of the aforementioned research papers has been almost exclusively the relation between Yukichi Fukuzawa and the politics and history of Korea. Therefore, our aim is to explore characteristics of Yukichi Fukuzawa’s educational thought during the era of Japan’s modernization, consider the way in which the higher education in Korea is practiced, and finally discuss how the present educational policy of Korea benefits from Yukichi Fukuzawa’s educational thought, which played a central role in politics, thoughts, and education in East Asia about 150 years ago. In particular, we investigate Fukuzawa’s educational thought with special reference to his Bunmei Kyouiku-ron (The Theory of Civilization Education). The present work suggests that it is essential that we analyze the thought of Yukichi Fukuzawa in a multi- dimensional way, rather than interpreting it positively or negatively as a reflection of the stream of the times.