퇴계의 理自到과 스피노자의 자기원인(causa sui)-퇴계 理의 體用論과 스피노자의 실체/속성론 비교

Abstract

In the Chosun Confucianism, the concept of Li that manifest(理 動), Li that approaches by itself(lidao, 理自到) in T'oegye (1501-1570) is a unique one that widely spread from cosmology to theory of mind. However, Toegye's concept of Li that approaches by itself is still at the center of controversy and is not used without any contradiction. However, the context of ‘Li’ of Toegye seems to be similar to ‘the substance’ of the Dutch philosopher B. Spinoza(1632-1677), who lived close to similar times. Attributes are at the very heart of Spinoza's metaphysics. It is due to the relation of attributes to one another and to the one substance that an elegant resolution to the Cartesian mind–body problem. If it is possibleIf we compare Spinoza's attributes which furnish his monism with variety while preventing it from being an ephemeral, homogenous totality to practical operation of Li’(理之體用), we can reach more precisely what ‘Li’ of Toegye means. Because T'oegye also tried to reveal Li’s activity without violating the ‘principle of silence(無爲)’ through the use of ‘the Body of things and its practical operation of Li’(理之體用). In spite of this clear explanation, the process of the controversy that Spinoza used to define the substance of "Causa sui" and the process of controversy that T'oegye's theory has undergone are quite similar. The problem that Toegye and Spinoza try to solve is the question whether the substance can be self-emanating or functioning. Toegye is led and motivated by Koh Bong who introduced "Chu Hsi’s Question and Answers on the Great Learning", in which Li that approaches by itself(lidao, 理自到) is clearly expressed, and it urges him to underline more aggressively ‘the Body of things and its practical operation of Li’ (理之體用). He points out lidao(理到) about wuge(物格) in his epistemology. The whole system of Toegye's philosophy(His metaphysics and the theory of mind and heart) has its theoretical coherence since then. Spinoza is also bold enough to propose the concept of Causa sui, which Descartes presented fisrt but failed to fully explain, from the beginning of his masterpiece Ethica, explaining it in a more active and coherent way. As a result, T'oegye's Li that approaches by itself and the causa sui of Spinoza succeed in describing the unified and immanent reality that expresses the principle of the universe in a lively and current force.