• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.29
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• pp.55-88
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• 2010

Jeong Yakyong deconstructs the Li theory of human nature in order to restore the original tradition of Confucius and Mencius. He downgrades theoretical statuses of Taeguk(ultimate pole) and Li, and denies truth values of the sameness premise of human nature and Li. He argues that human nature must be non other than mind's preference, and thus that human substance must not be human nature, but mind. Since mind can do good things as well as bad things, he tries to lead mind to do good things by way of restoring a primitive worship for Sangje(heavenly emperor). However, his major concepts and premises do not fit with original meanings of old confucian biblical books. Futhermore, his preference theory of human nature contains many contradictions and errors. Thus, his theory could not be evaluated as one which had transcended the Li theory of human nature.