초록 열기/닫기 버튼
본 연구의 주제는 듀이의 경험개념에 비추어 사고의 성격을 밝히는 것이다. 서양 전통철학에 의하면, 인간은 이성적 사고 또는 이론적 사고를 하는 존재로 규정된다. 그리고 인간은 이성을 통해서 실재 또는 본질이라는 존재의 참모습, 즉 영원불변하는 진리를 탐구한다. 여기서 경험은 원래 있는 세계에 본질과는 관계없는 변화를 일으키는 것 즉 ‘질성’을 만들어내는 것으로 규정된다. 이처럼 인간을 이성적 존재로 규정하는 서양 철학은 이성과 실재를 찬양하고 경험과 질성을 비하하며, 결국 데카르트에 이르러 ‘질성’을 자연의 속성에서 제외시키게 된다. 듀이 철학은 이와는 정반대되는 입장을 취한다. ‘교변작용하는 상황’을 가장 기본적인 형이상학적 사실로 인정하는 듀이의 관점에서 보면 자연은 총체적 질성을 특성으로 하며, 가장 기본적인 사고의 양태는 변화하는 총체적 질성을 포착하는 ‘질성적 사고’가 된다. 이때 이성적 사고는 독립적으로 작용하는 것이 아니라, 질성적 사고에 의존하며 질성적 사고를 위하여 작용하는 것이다. 이런 점에서 인간은 이성적 사고를 포함하는 질성적 사고를 하는 존재, 요약하여 ‘질성적 이성’의 사고를 하는 존재로 규정된다.
The purpose of this essay is to make clear and reconstruct the nature of human thinking alternative to the traditional and conventional view of rational thinking. According to the dualistic Western philosophy, man exists independently of and irrelevantly to nature, who is supposed to have his own traits wholly different from nature. Man is characteristic of reason and rational thinking; nature of reality and essence. Therefore the virtue of human being is to inquire into nature by using the ability of reason unique to himself and commanding rational thinking in the best and adequate way, so as to find out the eternal truth which is taken to be the form and property of nature. Contrarily, experience is regarded to issue out the unnecessary and undesirable change to the originally existing nature and world. Quality is produced by experience, which is temporary, floating, transient, full of change. As for the trait of human thought, the conclusion of the Western philosophy from the ancient Athens to Descartes can be epitomized as the praise of reason and reality and the disparagement of experience and quality which is considered to be added to the world improperly. Dewey takes the position exactly opposite to the traditional philosophy. For Dewey, the primary and sole way by means of which man meets, contacts, and confronts the world is experience. However, Dewey's view of experience is very much different from that of modern empiricists who believed that human being experiences separate, disjointed, individual objects. Dewey's concept of experience, above all, is based upon his metaphysical insight of the basic trait of existence. The object in nature does not exist independently, but as an transacting event. Also nature is an enormous event of events including and integrating innumerable number of events. Therefore, human being in experience contacts and confronts a whole of transacting events. Experience is redefined by Dewey as 'situation', which has the small size of nature but the same structure of nature. From the standpoint of Dewey, the basic metaphysical unit becomes 'a transacting situation'. It is not a separate object but a situation that man confronts in experience first and foremost. Situation has a complicate and integrated totality and its own unique quality. The direct and primary experience confronts situation, and apprehends the total quality as a 'total seizure'. The thinking ability to apprehend it is coined into 'qualitative thought(QT)' by Dewey. QT functions as the prime moment to operate reason. Reason does not and cannot move and operate on its own. It begins to activate when apprehended QT stimulates reason to think. Furthermore, reason cannot know when to stop its inquiry. The inquiry of reason begins and ends as soon as QT commands it to do so. More importantly, QT operates in the very process of rational thinking in an integrated way simultaneously. In summary, rational thinking is controlled by QT throughout inquiry. Human thought can be characterized as the operational integration of rational and qualitative thinking. More exactly, it is 'qualitative thought' including and integrating rational thinking.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
qualitative thought, transactional situation, quality, an experience, qualitative reason
