- P-ISSN0023-3900
- E-ISSN2733-9343
- A&HCI, SCOPUS, KCI
ISSN : 0023-3900
The Politics of Jeong and Ethical Civil Society in South Korea
Abstract
In this essay, I investigate how the cultural practice ofjeong and auniquely Korean collective moral responsibility, or uri-responsibility,which it entails, have contributed to the recent reinvigoration of ethicalcivil society in democratized Korea by focusing on three civil actioncases. In order to do so, first, I critically examine key concepts like uriand jeong, and challenge the conventional image of uri as an over-weening group identity that promotes social conformism by contrastingit with the pathological group-ego. Special attention will be given to thefamily-relational characteristic of uri and two dimensions of jeong(miun jeong and goun jeong ). Then I explore the political implicationsof uri in civil society by likening it to Rousseaus general will, andfinally highlight the cultural peculiarity of uri-responsibility by compar-ing and contrasting it with two Kantian-liberal accounts of responsibili-ty, on the one hand, and with Jaspers metaphysical responsibility,on the other. The essay concludes by revisiting the ethical vision inthe classical ideal of modern civil society and by presenting a jeong-based ethical civil society as the most politically practicable and cultur-ally relevant Korean alternative.
- keywords
- uri, jeong, civil society, uri-responsibility, Kantian respon-sibility, metaphysical responsibilityKim Sungmoon (Kim Seong-mun) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Govern-ment and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His resea, uri, jeong, civil society, uri-responsibility, Kantian respon-sibility, metaphysical responsibilityKim Sungmoon (Kim Seong-mun) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Govern-ment and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His resea
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