Young-Chan Ro

10.18399/acta.2011.14.2.006

cosmology ecology Environment Korean Neo-Confucianism Yi Yulgok anthropocentrism

This study examines ecological issues from the cosmological perspective. Ecological crisis or environmental problems are certainly related to moral and ethical issues. The severity of ecological crisis, however, requires us to look at a deeper dimension of the crisis, beyond the realm of ethics and morality. The modern ecological awareness awakens us to reflect on and contemplate a more fundamental issue concerning the ecological crisis. Understanding the nature of ecology requires a cosmological orientation. The modern scientific worldview, however, has resulted in conceiving the universe as a mere “object” of our research for the sake of human selfish benefit, an anthropocentric worldview. This article is an attempt to recover or re-discover the significance of cosmology in order to appropriate the place of human beings in the universe from the Confucian, especially Korean Neo-Confucian scholar Yi Yulgok (1536–1584)’s perspective. Yulgok’s Neo-Confucian worldview and philosophy are based on his cosmology, and his approach in dealing with human beings and the controversy regarding human nature is also based on his cosmological assumption. Ecological issues are closely related to cosmological issues. The article examines Yulgok’s understanding of the universe to elucidate the implication of the cosmology in relation to modern ecological awareness.