深齋 曺兢燮의 ‘格物’설 연구 - 왕양명 ‘격물’설과의 비교를 겸해서 -

Abstract

If you wish to extend our knowledge to the utmost, we must inversitigate the principles of all things welcome into contact with, for the intelligent mind of man is certainly formed to know, and there is not a single thing in which its principles do not inhear. It is only because all principles are not investigated that man’s knowledge is incomplete. For this reason, the first step in the education of the adult is to instruct the learner, in regard to all things in the world, to proceed from what knowledge he has of their principles, and knowledge he has of their principles, and investigate further until he reaches the limit. After exerting himself in this way for a long time, he will one day achieve a wide and far-reaching penetration. Then the qualities of all things, whether internal or external, the refined or the coarse, will all be apprechended, and the mind, in its total substance and great functioning, will be perfectly intelligent. This is called the investigation of things. This is called the perfection og knowledge. This is Zhuzi’s investigation of things and perfection og knowledge. Criticized Yangming Shimjae is based on the theory of Zhuzi. But Yangming is not that. According to Yangming, the extension of knowledge must consist in the investigation of things. A things is an event. For every emanation of the will there must be an event corresponding to it. The event to which the will is directed is a thing. Zhuzi’s opinion is thus different from Yangming. Therefore, Yangming criticism of the Shimjae is wrong.