@article{ART003194191},
author={Park Min Cheol},
title={What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’},
journal={The Review of Korean History},
issn={1225-133X},
year={2025},
number={157},
pages={297-340}
TY - JOUR
AU - Park Min Cheol
TI - What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’
JO - The Review of Korean History
PY - 2025
VL - null
IS - 157
PB - The Historical Society Of Korea
SP - 297
EP - 340
SN - 1225-133X
AB - The ‘1950s’ was a time when the search for philosophical principles for the construction of a new nation and the operation of society in the process of post-war recovery was faced with the task of the times, and it was inevitable that ‘philosophy’ at that time, which was being systematized and internalized by various branches of the discipline after escaping from the colonial transplantation of imperial Japan, would be asked to play an active role in taking on such a task. Contrary to expectations, however, ‘philosophy in the 1950s’ was more of a situation where it was floating between the two poles of ‘growing interest’ and ‘loss of ideological momentum’. The sharp break with traditional thought, the compressed and involuntary fusion of Western philosophy by colonization, and the spread of hostile ideologies due to division and war, on the one hand, limited the study of philosophy in the 1950s to a specific philosophy and a specific ideology, but on the other hand, even this limited philosophy was accompanied by its own dynamic interpretation process that responded to the historical situation and the conditions of the times. Therefore, another question that arises is: What was philosophy for philosophers in the 1950s? This is where this article begins. This article attempts to examine the meaning and role of philosophy in Korea in the 1950s by tracing the self-question “What is philosophy?” and their responses. To this end, this study analyzes the introductory philosophy books published in the 1950s, especially the prefaces, where the authors’ intimate thoughts and desires are most clearly expressed, in order to identify the philosophers’ problematic consciousness, active practice, and future prospects in response to the conditions of the 1950s. Ultimately, through the specific path of analyzing the prefaces of introductions to philosophy, this article confirms that ‘philosophy of the 1950s’ was constructed within the ‘emphasis on the practice-orientation of philosophy’, the ‘emergence and expansion of philosophical Americanism’, and the ‘logic of the modern enlightenment and the process of ordering philosophy’.
KW - Modern Korean Philosophy;History of Thought;Introduction to Philosophy;Americanism;1950s Philosophy
DO -
UR -
ER -
Park Min Cheol. (2025). What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’. The Review of Korean History, 157, 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. 2025, "What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’", The Review of Korean History, no.157, pp.297-340.
Park Min Cheol "What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’" The Review of Korean History 157 pp.297-340 (2025) : 297.
Park Min Cheol. What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’. 2025; 157 : 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. "What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’" The Review of Korean History no.157(2025) : 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’. The Review of Korean History, 157, 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’. The Review of Korean History. 2025; 157 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’. 2025; 157 : 297-340.
Park Min Cheol. "What ‘philosophy’ meant to Korean philosophers in the 1950s: Self-perceptions in the Prefaces of ‘Introduction to Philosophy (volume and translation)’" The Review of Korean History no.157(2025) : 297-340.
