교육내용의 가치 : 맹자 성론의 교육적 함의 = The Value of Educational Contents: the Educational Implication of Mencian Theory of Hsing

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Can it be said that educational contents have a permanent value? Maybe this question is denied to most people. Education is regarded as the meam for the various aims. For example, on the one hand, it is said that education should satisfy individual interests and needs; on the other hand, it is said that education should satisfy social needs. These perspectives presume that educational contents satisfy the various needs, and so each content, in its own way, has its value. In other words, the value of educational contents is relative. But Mencian theory of hsing is different from the above perspectives about the status of educational contents. Mencius asserts the goodness of hsing. It means that the goodness of hsing is inborn and, at the same time, acquired. Moreover, hsing designates the pure form of knowing and valuing that constitutes the very core humanity. From Mencian perspective, education is an activity that realizes hsing prior to convention as hsing posterior to convention. Here, the question does not arise whether education is the acquisition or realization of hsing. Moreover, this line of thinking leads to the right view of the status of educational contents. This point of view designates that educational contents should consist of the forms of knowledge that make the realization of hsing possible. The forms of knowledge as educational contents are the expressions of not an individual mind but an public mind. Here, the word `public` means not `social`. Rather it means metaphysical mind which is the presupposition of empirical and individual mind. When we learn the forms of knowledge, we possess this metaphysical mind. Finally, Mencian perspective presumes that the value of educational contents is permanent.