• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.44
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• pp.263-297
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• 2023

This study aims to understand human nature in Daesoon Thought. In addition, it seeks to determine the characteristics of human nature and how the theory of human nature in Daesoon Thought relates to the direction of the Basic Works and the Three Major Societal Works of Daesoon Jinrihoe. In order to understand the theory of human nature in Daesoon Thought, I have classified various theories of human nature that appear in the Confucian tradition and have analyzed and reviewed them. I used this framework of types as a methodological criterion to study the theory of human nature found in Daesoon Thought. In Daesoon Thought, human nature is defined clearly as the conscience that is honest and truthful. Also, it accepts humans' basic biological needs, the pursuit of clothing, food, and sexual desires as part of human nature. This view can be evaluated as quite similar, although not perfectly consistent, with the theory of human nature posited by Wang Fuzhi (王夫之), who defined human nature as a combination of morality and biological desires. The theory of human nature in Daesoon Thought emphasizes human morality, but at the same time, it fully accepts that biological needs are basic elements of human life. In addition, it shows a characteristic that strongly implies a religious tendency as it recognizes that human nature is internalized through divine commands issued by the Supreme God of the Ninth Heaven (九天上帝 Gucheon Sangje), the transcendent and absolute ruler. The Basic Works of Daesoon Jinrihoe, which are Propagation, Edification, and Cultivation, aim to restore human nature to its innate state of honesty and truthfulness. Among the Three Major Societal Works, we can see that the works of Social Welfare and Charity Aid are implemented in accordance with the accepting acknowledgment of basic human needs (the pursuit of clothing, food, and sexual desires), and helping people meet their needs in appropriate ways and to appropriate degrees.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.116
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• pp.225-256
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• 2010

The two school $M{\bar{a}}dhyamika$ and $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ act as a representative of $Mah{\bar{a}}y{\bar{a}}na$ Buddhism in India. But the two school disputed with each other insisting ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nyat{\bar{a}}-v{\bar{a}}da$ and $vij{\tilde{n}}aptim{\bar{a}}trav{\bar{a}}da$ separately. To introduce the disputation shortly is as follow. $N{\bar{a}}g{\bar{a}}rjuna$ explained the world and truth by two truth theories(二諦說) which carry out truth of a word and the dimension(spiritual enlightenment) which is absolute(ultimate) to it being lokasaṁvṛtisatya(世俗諦) about the truth which can be expressed verbally, and which is phenomenon-like (everyday) at paramaarthasatya(勝義諦). By the way, lokasaṁvṛtisatya and paramaarthasatya are actually distinction of the recognition which is not an ontological distinction. That is, lokasaṁvṛti(世俗) is paramaartha(勝義) as it is the time of seeing by the eyes of those who have realized. The two truth theories of $N{\bar{a}}g{\bar{a}}rjuna$ was developed logical more precisely by his successors. With an everyday language, the position of Candrakīrti(月稱) that it cannot be expressed as the position of $Bh{\bar{a}}vaviveka$(淸辨) that paramaarthasatya can be expressed logically is opposed to each other, and dissociates by $Sv{\bar{a}}tantrika$(自立論證派) and $P{\bar{a}}rsagika$(歸謬論證派). Confrontation of $Sv{\bar{a}}tantrika$ and $P{\bar{a}}rsagika$ is the dispute about the ability of s which is the highest truth to be proved logically. The $P{\bar{a}}rsaga$ of Candrakirti thinks that people exist truly, and is because it claims not existing in the world where a favorite thing is actually actual. However, $Bh{\bar{a}}vaviveka$ proved Sunyata(空性)을 positively based on the reliance to language and logic. Also the mokṣa of $M{\bar{a}}dhyamika$ is not recovery of original condition of $vij{\tilde{n}}apti$ which is pure in itself as $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ saying, as well as obtaining a thing which is dravya-sat as $Sarv{\bar{a}}stiv{\bar{a}}din$ saying. The mokṣa of $M{\bar{a}}dhyamika$ means a condition of liberated from karma and pains through extinction of $prapa{\tilde{n}}ca$ and discrimination by realizing the real aspect of all dharma which is said by pratītyasamutpāda, $praj{\tilde{n}}apti$, niḥsvabhāva, ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nya$, $madhyam{\bar{a}}pratipad$.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• no.116
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• pp.251-281
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• 2017

The Parmenidean tradition of logos which previous researches fail to fully appreciate has three dimensions of reality-knowledge-discourse. Parmenides is not just an ontologist, as the traditional view emphasizes, but also an epistemologist, as the revisionist view begins to emphasize, and, at the same time, a meta-discourser, as those two established views fail to embrace. In order to reach the third view which fully grasps such a dynamic and integrated feature of Parmenides, we should closely pay attention to the organic interconnectedness of three discourse parts of truth-doxa-proem, especially the significance of proem and meta-discourse. In the Eleatic tradition of discourse, the figure who clearly appreciated and further developed such an authentic feature of Parmenides' discourse is not, as one might easily expect, one of the second-generation Eleatics, but Gorgias who has commonly been positioned at the opposite side of Eleatism. This paper investigates how he actually both innovated and succeeded the Parmenidean tradition of logos; especially, it characterizes his discourse as an antilogy(antilogia) from within the tradition: as a 'devil' advocate' who complemented and completed Parmenidean persuasion by positing the Parmenidean tradition of logos as an arena of a huge intellectual discipline and cultivation, offering himself as a sparring partner to it, and bringing up an antilogy. In the process of this antilogy he performed in his rhetorical speeches such as the Encomium of Helen and the Defense of Palamedes he experimented and examined a possibility of persuasion operating independently from truth, which, however, is not merely sacrificing truth in favor of persuasiveness and probability (to eikos) as Plato criticized mainly focussing on his 'philosophical' writing On not-being. Rather, it was an 'opposition for opposition's sake' and serious play which purported to provide balance and flexibility to contemporary intellectual society which had too much inclined towards truth and knowledge and become stiff and to put weight on the opposite side of mainstream. It is wholly our eranos (i.e. our share of contribution) to summon and examine such sophistic tradition for the sake of the task of our times, not for the sake of Plato's task, that we should build up a healthy culture of discourse where we can share serious play.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.123-133
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• 2019

Director Lee Chang-dong saying that the most important thing is to let the audience experience, find its meaning, interpret, and feel the pure sensation (whether it's image, sound or music) that the film has instead of narrative giving you the answers, through the film presenting the pure natural landscape as it is, but all the familiar things that can be taken as a riddle are conveyed in images, and all the elements that make up the film share its presence with each other and let us experience a mysterious weight of reality that cannot be defined through its strange symbolism and metaphors, and it reflects various human emotions, reflecting curiosity of reality, the words that are hardly spoken, meanings of life that we were not being aware of. Rather than having one definitive figure, through the character's personality expressing an imperfect character with a complex ambiguous behavior asks about the things that can't be explained logically and the fact of life that can't be divided into truth or lie. Also, the acting approaches emotionally and primitively rather than using artificial expressions, showing the invisible elements of emotions that are latent inside humans through temperate acting style, leads the audience to distant themselves and reflect more deeply into life. This study analyzed the characters and acting of the film based on director Lee Chang-dong's directing style.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.117
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• pp.35-55
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• 2011

This article purports to clarify the doctrinal characteristics of the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ school's hermeneutic interpretations of the "theory of the three turns of the Dharma Cakra" in the Saṃdbinirmocana-sūtra through early Indian $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ treatises such as the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}rabb{\bar{u}}mi-vy{\bar{a}}kby{\bar{a}}$ and the. $Vy{\bar{a}}khy{\bar{a}}yukti$. It will probe how these interpretations apply co the theory of two truths or that of three natures($trisvabh{\bar{a}}va$) among the main doctrines of the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ school. Especially, the peculiar characteristic of the "theory of the three turns of the Dharma Cakra" is such chat the thought of ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nyat{\bar{a}}$ in the lineage of $Praj{\bar{n}}{\bar{a}}p{\bar{a}}ramita-s{\bar{u}}tras$ is regarded as incomplete, as the early school of Madhyamaka represented by $N{\bar{a}}g{\bar{a}}rjuna$ is conceived of as belonging to the second period of turn. Speaking of the further details of the "theory of the three turns of the Dharma Cakra", the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ school subdivides the realm of saṃvṛti satya in $N{\bar{a}}g{\bar{a}}rjuna^{\prime}s$ theory of two truths; that is, it divides the saṃvṛti into merely linguistic existence and actual existence, and the thus-created structure of the theory of three natures on the basis of ocher-dependent nature(paratantra-$svabh{\bar{a}}va$) makes it possible to establish the doctrinal system of the thought of ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nyat{\bar{a}}$ that is not subject to "nihilism or ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nyat{\bar{a}}$ attached to evil." In effect, the above hermeneutic interpretation of the "theory of the three turns of the Dharma Cakra" is inherited into the structure of the $abh{\bar{u}}taparikalpa$ in the $Madhy{\bar{a}}nta-vibh{\bar{a}}ga$ so that, as seen in the commentary of Sthiramati, it is ascertained to apply to later doctrines through its secure establishment. To summarize its characteristics succinctly, firstly the $abh{\bar{u}}taparikalpa$ newly established as a saṃvṛti-satya is set up as the other-dependent nature, which is seen to have been set up particularly in order to sublate both the $Sarv{\bar{a}}stiv{\bar{a}}da^{\prime}s$ realist "view of being" and the Madhyamaka's "view of ${\acute{s}}{\bar{u}}nyat{\bar{a}}$" that impairs the ocher-dependent nature as a samvṛti-satya. In other words, according to the five kinds of views suggested in Sthiramati's commentary, the three natures are seen to be presented as the fundamental truth in order to unify all the doctrinal systems available ever since the beginning of Buddhism. Then, the theory of three natures is established principally on the basis of the $abh{\bar{u}}taparikalpa$, while the two truths of the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ school are clearly ascertained to have been embedded in the structure of the $abh{\bar{u}}taparikalpa$. In fact, this might be understood to reflect the unique ontological view of reality or truth in the $Yog{\bar{a}}c{\bar{a}}ra$ School.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.27
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• pp.283-317
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• 2016

This research is an attempt to detail the multi-layered ethical characteristics of 'mutual beneficence', shown in the principle of 'guarding against self-deception' in Daesoon Thought while focusing on its major differences as well as the similarities with Kantian and Utilitarian ethical views. In these Western ethical perspectives, the concept of self-deception has received a considerable amount of attention, centering on the context of natural rights and contract theory. Meanwhile, in Daesoon Thought, 'guarding against self-deception' is presented as one of the principal objectives as well as the method or deontological ground for practice. It further encompasses the features of virtue ethics oriented toward the perfection of Dao. Here, the deontological aspect is interlinked with the concept of cultivation and the pursuit of ethics and morals. Hence this makes it a necessary condition for achieving the perfection of Dao, and likewise renders the practice of 'guarding against self-deception' more active through facilitating mutual relations based on the expansion model wherein human nature is characterized as possessing innate goodness. With regard to the tenet of 'resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence,' this concept is presented as a positive ground for practicing virtues toward others without forming grudges. Furthermore, as long as it reveals the great principle of humanity built on conscience, it will come to harmonize practitioners with others and spirits in an expression of beneficence. Moreover, originating in the Dao of Deities, guarding against self-deception is expressed as a form of life ethics and can be suggested as a new alternative for the model of virtue ethics proposed by Nussbaum. All in all, there is a natural causal relationship by which 'guarding against self-deception' in accord one's own conscience and the principle of humanity as a pursuit of perfect virtues in Dao result in the fulfillment of mutual beneficence. This readily akin to how gravity causes water to flow from high ground to low ground. Consequently, these relational features of mutual beneficence can serve an effective alternative to the Western ethical views which also address the need to overcome the egoistic mind which is liable to self-interest and alienation.