서구 정치사상에서의 公私개념과 가부장적 성차별성

The Conceptual Distinction of 'Public' and 'Private' in Patriarchal Western Political Thought

'Private' and 'public' are very familiar terms used in everyday life, but their meanings are so complicated, causing confusion for us. Many feminists agree to the point that the distinction between 'private' and 'public' is related to other conceptual distinctions, such as natural/cultural, feminine/masculine, all of which function as part of a conceptual system of oppression and confinement of women's lives. This paper starts by analyzing the concept of 'private' and 'public' in Greek and Modern political thought, which have exerted deep influence on our ordinary language and thinking process. The paper further goes on to understand the purpose of this distinctions, the criteria which distinguish private from public and compare these to the Greek and liberal. On the basis of the studies, I try to show that there are two kinds of the conceptual distinctions of 'private' and 'public', one is the republican, the other liberal. The former is the patriarchal conception in which there is a division of spheres, public as that of male heads of household and private as sphere of women. The latter conception is different from the republican. in that the liberal's conceptual distinction of 'private' and 'public' centers on the value of personal autonomy. In the context of liberalism, 'private' refers to the sphere of personal autonomy, an area that does not permit any kind of state interference with the individual. I argue that we should reject the republican's conception but we need to keep the liberal conception of 'public' and 'private' for women's liberation. The fact that modern social order under liberalism had oppressed women by the exclusion and separation of women from public spheres should take into account many other factors, especially those related to the character of the modern, gendered 'public' world. These reflect masculine values and men's experience rather than that of women. I conclude, by agreeing with some feminists voices, that we could find a solution to the problem of the distinction of public and private in the reconstruction of the public world and its feminization. When feminine values are recognized and pursued in the public world and women's experience put at the center in the public world, the distinction would be disappeared substantially, if not formally.