박종홍 철학: 민족과 근대, 종속과 주체성 사이에서 Pak Chong Hong Ch'eorhak: Minjok kwa Keundae, Chongsok kwa Chuch'eseong Sai eseo (Pak Chonghong’s Philosophy: between Ethno-nation and Modernity, Subordination and Subjectivity)

Abstract

Pak Chonghong (1903~1976) is one of the main agents in founding Korean modern philosophy. His philosophical lineages are rooted in at least three different traditions. In his early years he studied the Chinese classics; then,during the Japanese colonial period, he pursued his education at the official public schools where he came into contact with the Meiji cultural nationalism. Later on, he studied at Keijō Imperial University where he learnt, through the Japanese translations and the German original texts, about the Western philosophy which included in particular that of Heidegger but also other early existentialists and formed the basis of his philosophical worldview. Pak had the firm conviction that his task was to offer a modern reinterpretation of the Korean philosophical tradition. Indeed, he made significant contributions towards modernizing the Buddhist and Confucian legacy by describing this pre-modern philosophy with modern philosophical terms. However, his approach to ‘modernity’ was as uncritical as the Japanese conservative cultural nationalist theories he had read and assimilated were. Not only did he de-historicize and embellish the traditional Korean ideology, but he selected and used this embellished ideology in constructing civic ethics for the development of modern authoritarianism. Ultimately, Pak Chonghong’s ‘modernization of tradition’became part of Park Chong Hee’s patriotic discourse of ‘modernizing the nation’ and his cultural nationalism an underlying form of state-propagated nationalism.

박종홍 철학: 민족과 근대, 종속과 주체성 사이에서 Pak Chong Hong Ch'eorhak: Minjok kwa Keundae, Chongsok kwa Chuch'eseong Sai eseo (Pak Chonghong’s Philosophy: between Ethno-nation and Modernity, Subordination and Subjectivity)