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A Proposal for Improving Korean Medical Culture in Virtue of Reinterpretation of the Concept of Passivity

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2015, (58), pp.211-248
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : June 30, 2015
  • Accepted : August 5, 2015

Daeseok Jeon 1 Ahn, Duck-Sun 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this paper is to explain and reveal the peculiar aspect and property of passivity in Korean environment for medical education, and to make a proposal for improving Korean medical culture in virtue of reinterpretation of the concept of Levinas’ passive-passivity. And if the purpose is fully fulfilled, then it will try to seek for the possibility of explaining human behavior based on the biological species-specific sense and emotion. Medical education in East Asian countries was originated from colonialism. Therefore, medical education in each East Asian country has different aspects through ways that depend on each colonial acculturation agency. East Asian nations succumbed to colonialism without much resistance. In this historical context, we can grasp the trait of Korean medical culture and education. A recent discovery of the new meaning of passivity and heteronomy by Levinas opened a new realm of ethical views, which support noble refinement of the problematic passivity in Korean medical culture. The problematic medical culture of Korea could be enhanced in terms of a conception of “passivity” whose concept was sublimated by Levinas. The aptness of this direction of improvement will be shown in a discourse of relationship between the thoughts of Levinas and traditional Confucianism. And if the new concept of passive-passivity (passivity for other-ness) in terms of Levinas is reasonable, we must seek the conceptual and practical theory which is applied to the real Korean medical educational environment. The sympathetic ethical theory based on biological and species-specific sensational ground have a merit of explaining the phenomenon of human action since that approach well accounts for human behaviors in terms of sense, perception and emotion. If it is plausible, then this attempt may be a meaningful challenge which tries to offer a new moral foundation of ethical passivity and heteronomy.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.