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An Analysis of Seok Joo-Meong(1908~1950)′s"Biology and Gukhak"

  • PHILOSOPHY·THOUGHT·CULTURE
  • 2005, (2), pp.35~60
  • Publisher : Research Institute for East-West Thought
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities

Yujin Lee 1

1동국대학교

ABSTRACT

"Biology and Gukhak" written in the mid-twentieth century by the Korean biologist Seok Joo-Meong concerns itself with the interrelationships of special sciences and politico-cultural conditions in the country. Among those conditions Neo Confucianism and Gukhak are particularly important. Between the fifteenth century and the nineteenth one Neo Confucianism was Chosun's dominant political ideology. Even in 1947 when Seok Joo-Meong was working on the book "Biology and Gukhak", Neo Confucianism exerted considerable influence over the intelligentsia in the country. Meanwhile, Korea was founded one year after 1947. At that time Gukhak had a great influence on the thoughts and activities of educated people in South Korea. Seok Joo-Meong underwent philosophical confusions while he, under the influence of both Neo Confucianism and Gukhak, carried out some novel research on biology as a special science. It is quite valuable to take into account the intellectual confusions that Seok Joo-Meong had at that time, because those confusions, surprisingly and ironically, still remain in the present day.

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