Kim Sea-Jeong  Michael Bujold  Young-ki You

10.18399/acta.2011.14.2.008

Yi Hwang Yi I Pak Chiwon Hong Taeyong Chong Yagyong Ch’oe Han’gi

Few studies, approximately twenty papers over a short ten-year history, have to date been attempted on the topic of the ecological discourse within Korean Confucianism. This field of study launched in the late 1990s was in turn motivated by the environmental movements of the mid-twentieth century, as well as by the global trend towards the establishment of environmental and ecological ethics. The present study analyzes the various attempts that have been made to reestablish Korean Confucianism as ecological ethics, ecological education, and ecological politics in the face of the present ecological crisis. More to the point, this study reviews the ecological characteristics of Korean Confucianism, and examines the problems inherent in the ecological discourses within Korean Confucianism. Although Korean Confucianism possesses organic and ecological elements, the following tasks must be resolved if it is to emerge as an actual alternative that could be used to resolve the ecological crisis. First, it is necessary to broaden the subjects on which research is conducted. Second, there is an urgent need to educate individuals who specialize in both Korean Confucianism and ecology. Third, there is a need to gain an awareness of the general problems created within contemporary society as a result of the ecological crisis, as well as to understand the ecological philosophy of the Western world. Fourth, once the ecological characteristics that differentiate Korean Confucianism from the ecological discourse in the Western world have been established, actual alternatives can be created by overcoming the problems faced by the ecological discourse in the West through creative encounters between the ecological discourses of Korean Confucianism and Western philosophy. Fifth, the very survival of Korean Confucianism amidst the current ecological crisis is predicated on the search for more realistic measures and the paving of the way for opportunities to actually implement such measures.