정의 생성본체와 유가정치철학

The Becoming Ontology of Qing and Confucianism Political Philosophy

유교정치철학의 경험론의 기초는 넓은 의미에서의 ‘정(情)’의 본체가 사적으로 지니는 경험을 말한다. 그래서 이러한 정치철학은 바로 ‘정(情)’의 생성성(生成性) 본체를 만드는 주춧돌이며, 이것이 서양 정치철학이론과 다른 가장 기본적인 차이중의 하나이다. 이러한 유교관념(儒敎觀念)이 현대 ‘신자유주의(新自由主義)’의 그러한 원자주의(原子主義)에 대하여, 또는 현대 ‘사군주의(社群主義)’의 그러한 ‘무정주의(無情主義)’에 대하여, 모두 모종의 편향을 바로잡을 가치를 지니고 있다. 한중일(韓中日) 3국 공통의 사상의 기초를 다지고, 또한 ‘정(情)’을 근본으로 하는‘생활유학(生活儒學)’의 기초를 다지기 위한 것이지 ‘다스림(治)’의 근본인 ‘제도유학(制度儒學)’에 있지 않다. 전문은 모두 8개 부분으로 되어 있다. (1) ‘동심원(同心圓)’ 은유: ‘순서와 격식’을 어떻게 이해할 것인가? (2) ‘신체내부’로부터 ‘신체외부’로 ‘정(情)’을 밀어 낼 수는 없을까? (3)정(情)과 무(巫): ‘무사전통(巫史傳統)’에서 ‘화무입정(化巫入情)’에 이르기까지. (4)정(情)과 예(禮): ‘사악상제(社樂相濟)’에서 ‘예작우정(禮作于情)’에 이르기까지. (5)정(情)과 성(性): ‘정생우성(情生于性)’에서 ‘심통성정(心統性情)’에 이르기까지. (6)정(情)과 실(實): ‘범애중(泛愛衆)’적 유정(有情)과 ‘겸상애(兼相愛)’적 무정(無情)의 상대성. (7)개체와 공동체사이의 ‘정(情)’의 활동을 소개하고, ‘신자유주의(新自由主義)’와 ‘사군주의(社群主義)’ 간의 쟁점을 다시금 생각한다. (8)한중일의 공동사상의 기초: ‘정(情)’을 근본으로 하는 ‘생활유학(生活儒學)’이지, ‘다스림(治)’을 근본으로 하는 ‘제도유학(制 度儒學)’이 아니다.

The Confucian political philosophy is empirically grounded upon a private sphere of “emotion” in a more general sense, so the becoming ontology of Qing (emotion/feeling) becomes its footstone. As a characteristic of Confucian conception and its culture, this substantially “emotional” experience deals with how to attain communal as well as individual harmony. In Western political theory, the individual end is dearly cherished but held off from the communal one, because the organic process is displaced that potentially connects the private experience of harmony to the establishment of social harmony. Although both David Hume and Adam Smith single out “sympathy” as a forceful moral motivation, Confucianism goes so further as to conceive the sympathy oriented “Jen” as the origin of emotion and life and to attribute to “Jen” the “integrity with heaven and earth”. In Confucian political philosophy, the initial claim is made onto the self cultivation or moral cultivation on the part of each individual. And, on such a basis of personal experience, its further demand goes to the sphere of family, with an aim to secure an enduring reign, order and peace of the whole country, and ultimately the Perpetual Peace or oneness of the universe. It is an internal sequence that underlies the logical construction of Confucian political philosophy. More specifically, the Confucian political philosophy is to be realized in the following steps: First, the personal sphere of Confucianism covers primarily the self cultivation of each individual, where he is to attain inner harmony. Then, through the sympathy “to feel others in oneself”, the private experience of self cultivation is indeed put in a perspective of “inter subjectivity” for mutual empathy. Second, art, or the aesthetic education of emotion, is also responsible for the practice of Confucian political philosophy. What Confucius demonstrates through the “distraction in the arts” and “perfection by music” is intended to bring to light the unity of aesthetic refinement with moral exaltation in its equal emphasis of the two. Either in the case of poetry, which strengthens the fraternity of any social population, or in music, which enables personal equanimity and promotes social peace, “emotion” is invariably registered to have played a role in the process of one’s character building. Third, in virtue of the Kantian “common sense”, the “miniature institution” of Confucian ethics is expected to guarantee the harmony in the domain of family, where the familial value hangs high above all, for without a harmonious family system, the harmony of any macro institution is believed to find nowhere to ground upon. All of this is distinct from the Western atomism. Last, the transcendence the empirical Confucian political philosophy hopes to attain points to a “quasireligious” morality, that is, rather a “private sphere” morality for inward transcendence than a “social morality” that governs the public sphere. And, the tri dimensional process of inner surpassing, as illustrated in the legend of “Zeng Tzu’s metaphor” or “Confucius and Yan Hui’s delight”, points to the unity of the religious, the moral, and the aesthetic. However, the “kinship community” that sustains the Confucian ethics has seen its vital ties being disintegrated in modern society, with parts of its basic principles surviving only in some East Asian countries and areas. The remnant of Confucian ideology is of certain reformative value to, firstly, “the powerful overriding the helpless”, the contemporary liberalism never anticipates in its attempt to protect the individual right and seemingly fair competition, and secondly, “the majority overriding the minority”, the western conception of democracy fails to undo in its promotion of public will and people’s democracy. With regard to the common foundation between Korean, Chinese and Japanese cultures, I think it must base on “Life