German Philosophy in East Asia and Beyond
In today’s talk, I would like to reflect on the background through which German philosophy was introduced into East Asia, as well as its philosophical and political implications. My talk consists of 3 parts. 1. German Philosophy in East Asia: Japanese intellectuals were at first largely influenced by British empiricism and French Enlightenment thought. Later, however, German scholarship—especially idealism, historicism, and legal philosophy—rose to prominence. German thought stressed state, morality, community, and historical development, which matched Japan’s growing nationalism and its effort to legitimize the Emperor system. Korea’s systematic encounter with Western philosophy began during the colonial period through Japan, where German Idealism already held a privileged position in academia. In early modern China, scholars primarily taught Anglo-American metaphysics, logic, philosophy of language, and pragmatism. Even regarding German philosophy, their focus tended more toward the Neo-Kantianism and phenomenology than toward German Idealism. After the Communist revolution, the study of Western philosophy in China became highly restricted. Nonetheless, in terms of overall impact, it is fair to say that German philosophy exerted a profound influence. 2. Philosophy and Politics One of the most intriguing aspects of the reception of German philosophy in East Asia is its close relationship with politics. The self-centered and active subjectivity emphasized in German Idealism provided ideological support for the Emperor-centered state ideology in Japan. The Meiji Restoration (明治維新, Meiji Ishin) literally means “renewal by reforming what is old.” The same term “Yushin維新” later appeared in modern Korean history, where Korea’s Yushin system sought to construct a strong national subjectivity. Even North Korea’s Juche ideology was influenced by German Idealism. The literal meaning of Juche(주체) in Korean is subjectivity. The relationship between philosophy and politics can itself be seen as a profound philosophical problem. Marx envisioned the unity of theory and practice and believed that philosophy would reach its end only when his utopian vision of a realized world became reality. China, in turn, experimented with this conception of philosophy. In East Asia, philosophical struggle has often become political struggle, just as political struggle has become philosophical. 3. Philosophy in Our Time It seems that the philosophical pursuit of rigorous objectivity in knowledge no longer stimulates the intellectual curiosity of philosophers as it once did. Owing —perhaps both thanks and no thanks—to the rapid developments in cognitive science, neuroscience, and neurophysiology, philosophers have increasingly shifted their focus from theoretical philosophy to practical philosophy, cultural philosophy, and social and political philosophy. Now we live in an age of civilizational transformation. The questions that once seemed familiar to us—those of freedom, equality, justice, labor, race, gender, and class—now await new forms of philosophical reflection. Today, philosophy must confront the tension between the mechanized human and the humanized machine. I hope that German philosophy, facing this new historical challenge, will actively draw upon the modes of thought and worldviews of other cultures and, through such dialogue, move toward new creative possibilities.
한국철학회
이화여자대학교 김혜숙
