공자의 교육사상에 관한 연구

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A Study on the Confucius's Educational Thought

Jung, Kuem Reh Advisor : Prof. Hee Muh, Cho Ph.D. Major in Education of Chinese Language Graduate school of Education, Chosun university

Perception of things is fundamentally different in the East and the West. In the East, understanding the world requires abstract and ideological thinking, while in the West, an intuitionist and realist is considered a wise man. The Eastern philosophy teaches to view things as a whole, and that the true meaning lies between the lines. The Western philosophy, on the other hand, values analytic and independent thinking. The Eastern and Western paradigms are thus unlike. However, despite the cultural dissimilarities, Korean educational reforms are often unaptly based on the Western reasoning and methodology. A question should be raised as to whether the educational system in Korea can successfully function on the basis of logics from a different mindset. For a long time, education has been pointed out to be the source of numerous problems. In order to come up with an alternative, the cause of the failure first needs to be analyzed. In this light, this study focuses on the educational theory of Confucius with regard to anthropocentricism, a value of importance in this sinopheric society. Confucianism stresses that a man should, through education, discover the principles of the world and try to live his life accordingly. Confucius was born in the era of folk beliefs and feudalism, when the predestined course of life was believed to be unalterable by the human will. He changed the meaning of life for humans by suggesting a new utopia, a combination of the fatalistic folk religion, human will, and the laws of nature. His idea of utopia was a world full of "wise men", the men of virtue who do not rebel against providence and are by nature benevolent. The foundation of his theory lies in the following three letters. First of all, 天, the sky, stands for realization of the heaven's will through self-discipline and striving for virtue and living by it. Secondly, 人, the human, describes how the world flows over with love for human and that human should be the standard of every judgement. Lastly, 仁, benevolence, means purifying human nature, blaming oneself for flaws, and being thankful for others, so that the world is ruled by benevolence. The objective of Confucian education is to form a complete and social human being. Cultivation of Junzi, a "perfect man", was emphasized as an exemplar of a complete human being. And to raise a social human being, it was first required that the world be calmed and the state's people be peaceful. The appropriate content of the education to serve the purpose was indicated as cultivation of virtues, emotional stabilization, restoration of morality, and practice of knowledge. The Confucian educational method to achieve this goal includes self-development and respect of individuality. This study will hopefully contribute to preventing loss of humanity through education and provide an idea to a new, human-oriented educational paradigm. A drawback to this study, however, is that the feasibility of the result might be restricted, for there is a huge time gap between the Confucian era and the Korean society of today. Also, further research is needed, since the range and depth of the study is rather limited, because of the restricted amount of the research material.