This article investigates the Neo-Confucian discourse on war, premised on the “Chinese versus barbarian” binary, and its impact on the Neo-Confucian scholar-officials of 17th-century Chosŏn Korea. It shows that Korean Neo-Confucians suffered invasions from the Jurchens, who they regarded as “barbarians,” and that the political debate on how to respond to the “barbarians” drove the advocates of the pro-peace argument to reimagine Chosŏn’s statehood. The article consists of three parts. First, it reconstructs the philosophical foundations of the mainstream Neo-Confucian discourse (...) on the war with the “barbarians” with reference to Zhu Xi. Second, it discusses the strong impact of the Neo-Confucian paradigm of war on the orthodox Korean Neo-Confucians of the 17th century. Third, it examines how Ch’oe Myŏng-kil, one of the rare champions of the pro-peace argument at the time, justified making peace with the Jurchens through the judicious use of “the expedient.”. (shrink)

1. Hyŏndae munmyŏng i majuhan saengmyŏng wigi -- 2. Sarang kwa konggam ŭi Kongja Yuhak -- 3. Tolbom kwa haengbok ŭi Maengja Yuhak -- 4. Sangsaeng kwa kongsaeng ŭi Yugyo -- 5. Wang Yang-myŏng ŭi tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi sam, 1 -- 6. Wang Yang-myŏng ŭi tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi sam, 2 -- 7. Ch'ŏnji manmul kwa in'gan i han mom in segye -- 8. Tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi ch'amdaun in'gan -- 9. Kamŭng kwa t'onggak ŭi chuch'e in yangji -- (...) 10. Tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi yangji sirhyŏn ŭi kil -- 11. Yangji sirhyŏn kwa ch'amdoen chŭlgŏum -- 12. Tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi ch'inmin chŏngch'i -- 13. Paeryŏ wa tolbom ŭi ch'amdoen chaa sirhyŏn ŭi kyoyuk -- 14. Paeryŏ wa tolbom ŭi ch'amdoen chaa sirhyŏn ŭi kyoyuk -- 15. Che 4-ch'a sanŏp hyŏngmyŏng sidae, tolbom kwa kongsaeng ŭi kil. (shrink)

‘위인’ 정약용이 아닌 ‘인간’ 정약용을 찾아서... 한국 사상가들의 발자취를 찾아가는 ‘우리 인물 답사기’의 첫 책! 동녘 ‘우리 인물 답사기’ 시리즈의 첫 책. 이 시리즈는 철학 소설 형식으로 한국 사상가들의 삶과 사상을 들려준다. ‘달중과 미영’이라는 한국학을 공부하는 대학원생이 여러 인물들을 만나면서 그들과 대화를 하며 한국 사상가들을 인상적으로 스케치한다. 이 시리즈는 그동안 ‘위인’으로 바라보았던 사상가들의 얼굴을 한 겹 벗겨내고, 한 ‘인간’으로서의 모습을 그려내는 데 주력한다. 첫 번째로 찾아가는 인물은 18세기 실학사상을 집대성한 한국 최고의 학자이자 개혁가라고 평가받는 다산 정약용이다. 정약용에 관한 책은 많지만, (...) 평소 어렵고 두꺼운 인문서를 통해 정약용을 알아가는 데 아쉬움이 컸던 독자들에게 소설적 이야기로 풀어나가는 이 책은 흥미롭게 정약용의 삶에 접근하는 지름길이 되어준다. 먼저 등장하는 고교생 서연은 엄마를 아홉 살에 잃었다. 우연히 정약용도 아홉 살에 어머니를 여읜 사실을 알고 서연은 묘한 동질감을 느낀다. 어느 날 건축 일을 하는 아빠가 춘천 현장에서 한자로 ‘열수’라고 새겨진 모형 배를 줍게 되고, ‘열수’가 잘 알려지지 않은 정약용의 호라는 것을 알고 있던 서연은 그 배가 정약용과 관련이 있을 것이라고 생각한다. 아빠와 함께 남양주로 정약용 답사를 떠나기로 한 서연과 아빠는 정약용의 고향 ‘마재’에서 뜻밖의 귀인을 만나 함께 동행하게 되는데...... 마재, 여유당, 운길산 수종사, 수원 화성, 다산 초당, 강진 사의재... 정약용의 흔적이 묻어 있는 공간에서 그의 삶을 철학 소설로 풀다! (shrink)

P'ŭrollogŭ : t'ongil ŭi sahoe iron ŭrosŏ hana nolli -- 1. Huch'ŏn chŏngsin kaebyŏk kwa ch'ŏnjiin habil : hana nolli ŭi ironjŏk paegyŏng kwa chŏnmang -- 2. Hana nolli ŭi hyŏngsŏng : na ŭi ironsajŏk maengnak -- 3. Hana nolli ŭi kuch'uk : charyo, kach'i chŏnje, punsŏkt'ŭl -- 4. Hana nolli ŭi Tong Asiajŏk t'odae -- 5. Hana nolli ŭi ironjŏk t'ŭksŏng kwa chihyang -- 6. Munmyŏng chŏnhwan ŭi kil : huch'ŏn chŏngsin kaebyŏk ŭl nŭkkyŏ poja -- Ep'illogŭ : kurŭm (...) yori wa sinsŏn norŭm. (shrink)

This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind...

Cet article est disponible en texte intégral en format PDF.

Direction of fit theories usually claim that beliefs are such that they “aim at truth” or “ought to fit” the world and desires are such that they “aim at realization” or the world “ought to fit” them. This essay argues that no theory of direction of fit is correct. The two directions of fit are supposed to be determinations of one and the same determinable two-place relation, differing only in the ordering of favored terms. But there is no such determinable (...) because of ineliminable asymmetries between the way that beliefs “aim at truth” and the way that desires “aim at realization.” This essay traces the ills of direction of fit theory to a misunderstanding of Anscombe and proposes a cure that distinguishes theoretical and practical thought by appeal to a distinction between thought in the form of a state and thought in the form of an event. (shrink)

Is Anscombean practical knowledge independent of what the agent actually does on an occasion? Failure to understand Anscombe’s answer to this question is a major obstacle to appreciating the subtlety and plausibility of her view. I argue that Anscombe’s answer is negative, and turns on the nature of mistakes in performance, and reveals a distinctive implicit metaphysics of mind and knowledge, structured by related capacities and exercises of capacities. If my interpretation is correct, then practical knowledge shares features with knowledge-how (...) and knowledge-that, but deserves its own epistemic category. (shrink)

This article takes up Diogenes again, investigating some of the reasons Diogenes has been unappreciated, and making a case for Diogenes' mind-based teleology as a significant philosophical contribution. The sophists, too, have suffered from the charge, which goes back to Plato, of not being “real” philosophers. Diogenes did not bother himself with, or was not interested in, showing in what sense the world is organized in the best possible manner; this looked to him as something that happened as a matter (...) of course. What did interest him, on the other hand, was to show what the thing that exercised intelligence is. From this point of view, the emphasis is definitely not on teleology, but rather on noetics. Here, primary textual evidence is available, for the fragments, as well as Simplicius's presentation of them, definitely support the view that the point of Diogenes' argumentation was to show that intelligence is air's. (shrink)

Responsible leadership is rare. It is not that most leaders are irresponsible, but responsibility in leadership is frequently defined so that an important connotation of responsible leadership is ignored. This article equates responsible leadership with virtuousness. Using this connotation implies that responsible leadership is based on three assumptions—eudaemonism, inherent value, and amplification. Secondarily, this connotation produces two important outcomes—a fixed point for coping with change, and benefits for constituencies who may never be affected otherwise. The meaning and advantages of responsible (...) leadership as virtuous leadership are discussed. (shrink)

In men and women sexual arousal culminates in orgasm, with female orgasm solely from sexual intercourse often regarded as a unique feature of human sexuality. However, orgasm from sexual intercourse occurs more reliably in men than in women, likely reflecting the different types of physical stimulation men and women require for orgasm. In men, orgasms are under strong selective pressure as orgasms are coupled with ejaculation and thus contribute to male reproductive success. By contrast, women's orgasms in intercourse are highly (...) variable and are under little selective pressure as they are not a reproductive necessity. The proximal mechanisms producing variability in women's orgasms are little understood. In 1924 Marie Bonaparte proposed that a shorter distance between a woman's clitoris and her urethral meatus (CUMD) increased her likelihood of experiencing orgasm in intercourse. She based this on her published data that were never statistically analyzed. In 1940 Landis and colleagues published similar data suggesting the same relationship, but these data too were never fully analyzed. We analyzed raw data from these two studies and found that both demonstrate a strong inverse relationship between CUMD and orgasm during intercourse. Unresolved is whether this increased likelihood of orgasm with shorter CUMD reflects increased penile–clitoral contact during sexual intercourse or increased penile stimulation of internal aspects of the clitoris. CUMD likely reflects prenatal androgen exposure, with higher androgen levels producing larger distances. Thus these results suggest that women exposed to lower levels of prenatal androgens are more likely to experience orgasm during sexual intercourse. . (shrink)

Confucian humility (qian xun 謙遜) is a deeply rooted virtue in East Asian traditions and widely practiced among modern East Asians. Despite its significance, our modern understanding of it remains imperfect, partly due to a prevailing misunderstanding of its true nature under the label of “modesty­bias.” This bias is often cited as a representative trait of East Asian collectivism in social or cultural psychology, leading to a narrow focus on attitudes and behaviors associated with it, with little attention to whether (...) it accurately reflects the historical roots of Confucian humility. This paper aims to highlight the notable differences between attitudes or behaviors related to modesty­bias and traditional Confucian humility, arguing that failing to make this distinction poses a significant obstacle to understanding Confucian humility as a virtue and its contemporary expression. Methodological suggestions are provided on how to conduct interdisciplinary research on Confucian humility, emphasizing the need to recognize and address the prejudice associated with modesty­bias. Such an interdisciplinary approach can also help discern modern attitudes or behaviors rooted in Confucian humility and shed new light on the continuing relevance of this traditional virtue in contemporary East Asian society. (shrink)

For the physicalist, the mind-body problem is the problem of finding a place for the mind in a world that is fundamentally physical. What does “fundamentally physical” mean? I think any physicalist will accept at least the following two claims. First, the world contains nothing but bits of matter and aggregates of bits of matter. There are no Cartesian souls, or Hegelian spirits, or neo-vitalist entelechies—as the emergentist C. Lloyd Morgan put it, no “alien influx” into the natural order. This (...) ontological thesis is sometimes called “ontological physicalism”. Second, we have the supervenience thesis: physical facts determine all the facts, and the physical properties of a thing determine all its properties. At this point, then, the world looks like this: all the things that exist are physical things—either basic bits of matter or wholly made up of bits of matter. These physical things have properties. What properties? First, there are basic physical properties, like mass, size, shape, electric charge, and so on—properties and magnitudes in terms of which laws of physics are formulated. But some properties of complex physical systems, like biological organisms, seem prima facie nonphysical—at least, they are not among the properties investigated in physics or the physical sciences. Prominent among them are mental properties—beliefs, desires, sensations, emotions, and the rest. The supervenience thesis says that such properties are fixed by the physical properties of the systems that have them; once the physical properties of a system are fixed, that fixes all of its properties. And yet property dualists, or nonreductive physicalists, maintain that although certain non-physical properties are determined by physical properties, they are irreducible to, and remain distinct from, physical properties. Although thoughts and pains are determined by the biology, and ultimately physicochemistry, of an organism, they are not biological/physical properties themselves, and there exists a special autonomous science of psychology, or cognitive science, that is responsible for investigating them. (shrink)