KJC Korea
Journal Central

Many Koreans have a strong feeling of comparative poverty and unfair distribution. In this situation, laborers have been fighting to get a greater share of the profits. Sometimes they use extreme methods such as committing suicide. To a certain degree, laborers' requests are accepted as reasonable, but people are now feeling that the laborers' requests are too demanding and hard on the national economy to satisfy. Thus, what is the proper level of just distribution? The proper level cannot be decided by looking at only the business owners' voice or the voice of the laborers. To find out the just level of distribution, we must consider multiple elements like businesses' general capability, the economic power of country, the competitive power of businesses and country in the international market, and above all, the harmony and wholistic development of the country. Taking these into account, first, this article will analyse such statistics as the number of work hours, wages, the productivity of labor, extra expenses for laborers, and so on, to estimate the fairness of laborers' requests. Second, this article will suggest ethical principles for a just distribution. Third, it will suggest the role of government for the establishment of a just society and for the peaceful and wholistic development of the country.

This paper intended to evaluate the recent social issues of suicide in Korea. In terms of research methods, the author used meta-analysis as a theoretical framework to formulate an interdisciplinary method, and at the same time utilized a journalistic approach to collect and evaluate actual suicide cases, which were reported in the daily newspapers in Korea. The author developed the following four analytic tools to assess and evaluate a variety of suicidal issues: (1) social relations theory perspective; (2) Biblical understanding and perspective; (3) Christian life ethics perspective; and (4) psychodynamic psychiatry perspective. Durkheim's four types of suicide - egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic types - were also employed to analyze Korean suicidal cases. In the final section, the author recommended practically-oriented six alternatives that would be applied to prevent suicide as well as to develop counseling programs for the suicidal populations in Korea.

Physician's professional autonomy in Korea has been threatened by several factors. The most important are the unreasonable national healthcare system and negligence of education of the professionalism in medical schools. Physicians' dual roles -as healer and professional- are linked by codes of ethics governing behaviour and are empowered by well established medical system. Unfortunately, Korean medical system is not guaranteed physicians' professional autonomies. Korean government made a health care system that has a very strict regulations, but, the budget is very restrictive. Most Korean physicians have to manage their private clinics under strict regulations. The change in Korean healthcare systems in recent 3 years has been dramatic, resulting in physicians having diminished autonomous decisions for their patients. The increased complexity and cost of medicine undoubtedly made this inevitable. Societal attitudes to physicians have changed from supportive to increasingly critical- with physicians being criticised for pursuing their own financial interests, and failing to self-regulate in a way that guarantees competence. Korean physicians failed to take social agreements for their difficulties, the reason is that they should have to show up their effort to establish better relationship with patients more earlier before this critical period. The contract between professions and society is relatively simple. The physicians are granted a monopoly over the use of a body of knowledge, as well as considerable autonomy, prestige, and financial rewards- on the understanding that they will guarantee competence, provide altruistic service, and conduct their affairs with morality and integrity. Both government and publics should wish for the same type of physician- competent, moral, idealistic, and altruistic. This is best guaranteed by a reasonable health care reform.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cause of University Students suicide impulse in their suicide behavior as one of the social problems, and to present the necessity for the preventive education against it. This study analyzed the psychological, social, existential, pathological causes of the suicide impulse through the reports. As the universal result, melancholia(35.8%), there are human relationship(16.3%), family discord(14.0%), studies result(6.5%), card debt and financial poverty(5.1%), lose job(3.2%). As the concrete facts, psychological factors were guilt conscience, the grief over the loss of love, hatred, revenge, dispair, the self-maltreatment due to self-identity deprivation, despair, duplicate emotion, the desire to escape from unbearable pain, irrational posthumous view. The social factors were the difficulty from interpersonal relation, the problem of scholastic achievement, family destruction and poverty, family pathology, the environment exposed easily to suicide means. The existential factors. which might mean that human should be mortal, destroyed the meaning and will to live. The pathological factors were mental disease, melancholia, chronic disease, the deprivation to impulse control ability, stress, hunger, fatigue. Therefore as the preventive education against those suicide impulse factors, the education on the existence consciousness is necessary because erroneous consciousness of existence have a likely effect upon the suicide impulse. Besides the education about dignity of life and the view of the worth and the education about the view of the world after death. Especially the education on death is rather urgently necessary to our education in order to lead our honest and desirable life.

The purpose of this paper is to study ethical theory based on Christian moral view for response to moral crisis in postmodern age. Specially it focused on Christian moral theory of responsibility. For this purpose, it studied anti-realism as the source of moral crisis in post-modern age. Anti-realism says morality is not realistic but inventional. And in plualistic world view, traditional moral theories based on realism are regarded as meta-nerrative. Unfortunately, moral realism seems to be failed in effective counterargument to anti-realism. Now, this paper started from this reason and studied hermeneutical realism as an alternative theory for anti-realistic challenge. For example, W. Schweiker insists moral integrity based on this view. His concept of moral responsibility is focused on responsive proposal to anti-realistic theory in post-modern, technological age. On this basis, this paper studied the possibility and necessity of moral responsibility in Christian ethics. Of course there are so many styles of moral responsibility in Christian ethics and moral philosophy. H. R. Niebuhr proposed the idea of responsible self, H. Jonas insisted responsibility in technological age for next generations. This paper integated concepts of responsibility for effective response to anti-realistic view in the age of ethical crisis. Now, conclusion of this study is summarized as follows. First, the effective counterargument to anti-realism is urgently needed for Christian ethics in post-modern age which regards it as meta-narrtive in plualistic world view. Second, Christian moral responsibility must be deepen and abundant theoretically. This paper hope to be a guide to more sound theory of Christian moral responsibility in the age of post-modernity and technology.

The purpose of this paper is to study meaning of communitarianism in Korean context in relation to Confucianism. For this purpose, liberal-communitairan debate was explained in the context of Korean Confucianism. And the idea of Christian community was compared with Korean concept of community spirit. The Christian community opens the possibility of the community in which equality and justice are respected. In this meaning, neo-liberalism in Korea must be under criticism. Meanwhile, Korean collective egoism must be overcome. The meaning and idea of sound community is derived from biblical community.

Grave moral challenges face contemporary society. The societies of postmodernism reject the value system and traditional moral conceptions. There are various researches of relationships between postmodernism and ethics. But W. Schweiker explains the reasons and causes of moral crisis creatively. He suggests the hermeneutical moral realism. To speak of hermeneutical realism is to acknowledge the inescapable fact of human meaning-making in an account of morals. This means that we should see ourselves as travelers and interpreters of diverse moral worlds rather than trying to catch the human spirit through the spheres of one culture. It means that the continuities in human life and among cultures are intertwined with dimensions of existence that foster and preserve diversity.

In this essay I tried to explain the fundamental structure of the Confucian Community through the principle of Tong(統). This principle is a inclusive norm which makes all the unity and order possible, and provides the unity between the family, education and nation. On the ground of the principle of Tong(統) the ethics of the Confucian Community could go forth from the family to the Community of Daedong(大同). But it is the historical experience that the Confucian Community suffers under the conflicts between the ethos of family and Daedong society. It seems to me that the Confucian Community could not solve this question. But the Christian community opens the possibility of the community in which equality and justice are respected. the Christian community in Korea struggles against a dilemma. The principle of Christian ethics can provide the universal ethos, but is influenced of the family ethos of Confucianism. If the Christian community in Korea will overcome this self-contradiction, it can be realize the new community ethos in Korea.