The Philosophical Problem of Democracy in East Asia
김은중 / Eunjoong Kim
연세대학교
가톨릭철학
2005, vol., no.7, pp. 363-386 (24 pages)
G704-001490.2005..7.014
한국가톨릭철학회
Introduction
From monarchia to politics
The appearance of speech and competition
The creation of hypothetic deductive system
Formal logic or collectivism and the waiting opposite as a partner
초록
The democracy developed in Europe and the kingly way politics in China have the same idea in pursuing humanism. However these systems are very different in form and contents. The democracy pursues the government of the people. The kingly way politics pursues the government for the people. The western democracy was born in early Greece with the development of the citizen’s consciousness. The development of citizen’s consciousness changed their mythic world view for philosophical world view, then the democracy was born in this process. The theme of democracy is the belief that human reason can understand the truth. So they believed that the construction of the democracy by human being was possible. However Chinese people did not think that human reason could understand the truth. In the west, the universe could be known by the people, but in the China, could not be. So in China, the political system is managed by a few intelligent people who could know the secret code of the universe. In the twentieth century, many asian countries have introduced the western democracy. But the discipline of reason which is the necessary condition was not executed. This situation has made the conflict between the democracy authority and the kingly way politics authority. The political conflicts happened in Korea are such kinds. Then the philosophical problem of democracy in the Asian countries is the following. Is the discipline of human reason is possible to the Asian people? Because the ideal democracy without discipline of human reason is impossible.
