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Rethinking Risk Society within the Early Confucian Context: With a Special Focus on the Problem of Uncertainty in Mencius

고은강 1

1서울과학기술대학교

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ABSTRACT

This article is an attempt to reframe uncertainty in a risk society, with a special focus on the Mencian phrase of “maintaining a fixed heart without a certain livelihood.” Mencius raises the problem of uncertainty as follows: “Only men of education are able to maintain a fixed heart without a certain livelihood. As to the people, if they have not a certain livelihood, it follows that they will not have a fixed heart. And if they have not a fixed heart, there is nothing which they will not do, in the way of self-abandonment, of moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license. When they thus have been involved in crime, to follow them up and punish them; this is to entrap the people.”An individual, abandoned into a risk society dominated by ‘liquid modernity,’ is exposed to uncertainty. This problem of uncertainty is an analogy for the problem of people without a fixed heart in the writings of Mencius. The way of “maintaining a fixed heart without a certain livelihood” is summarized into two ways. One is to become “a man of education,” who has successfully achieved personal freedom, separate from any economic condition. “A man of education” is able to behave freely from money or other condition to earn money such as people’s recognition and therefore to maintain his own faith. The other is to reconstruct community in such a way as to offer certainty or a feeling of being protected. Communities such as family and village may provide the sources of identity and self-confidence to an individual in risk society. However, these two ways cannot be the fundamental solutions for the problem of uncertainty in risk society. According to Mencius, economic uncertainty leads to mental instability, which in turn causes various social problems. However, guiding people to the way of becoming “a man of education” is a second choice. Most of all, the government policy should focus on developing diverse ways to guarantee people with “a certain livelihood,” which is the most fundamental source of “a fixed heart.” Mencius argues that the prosperity of the state cannot be achieved without social welfare at the individual level. Rather, the prosperity of the state should be perceived as beginning with social welfare.

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