Confucianism and Human Rights : The Reception of the Concept of People's Rights During The Enlightenment Period in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The reception process of the concept of human rights by Korean intellectuals during the enlightenment period was a response to new political demands. Its characteristics include trying to combine traditional Confucian ethics and the human rights concept of the West. In particular, they dreamed of a new civilization in which the individual and the community would have a dynamic and harmonious relationship under the individual's autonomy. This new concept of rights was accompanied with self-moderation and responsibility and it was disciplined by Confucian ethics. Calling for human rights only for procedural justice without moral autonomy or responsibility to community based on propriety and a sense of shame can bring about self-alienation. Therefore, well-cultivated persons are needed. Those who can control themselves, and are embodied with discipline and take responsibility for harmony with in the community rather than the excessive calling for individual's rights. Civic of sonbi-type virtue is needed. A contributing point of Confucianism to the debate on human rights is that it can give nutritive materials to managing a good life by seeking symbiosis and harmony between the self/other, individual/community, and human/nature. Discourses on human rights during the enlightenment period in Korea, even though not successful, can provide a starting point for the creative complexity of Confucianism and human rights.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I.Introduction
• II.Power Shift of Civilization: Background to the Reception of the Concept of People's Rights
• 1.Is There No Concept of Right in Confucianism?
• 2.Why Would Koreans Receive the Western Belief of Human Rights?
• III.Reception Process of the Concept of People's Rights
• IV.Real Policies for the Protection of the People's Rights
• V.Conclusion