초록 열기/닫기 버튼
설태희는 유교연구와 교육, 언론과 조합활동을 통해 사회운동을 전개한 사상가이다. 그는 1920년대 ‘조선물산장려회’에서 활동하면서 다른 실력양성론자들과 달리 전통유교사상에 기반한 사회재건을 추구했다. 그는 유교의 본령이 현실변화를 위한 실용정신에 있다고 보고, 양명학의 지행합일론을 지지하였다. 뿐만 아니라 스스로 존재할 수 없는 理는 스스로 존재할 수 있는 氣의 기능조리일 뿐이라는 이기관을 바탕으로 송대 및 조선시대의 성리학을 비판하였다. 설태희는 토지사유화를 부정하는 사회주의 이념에 호응하면서도 주체성을 잃는 주의주장이나 폭력을 반대였으며, 유교 왕도정치를 바탕으로 민족의 자주적 생존권이 보장되는 대동사회 건설이 가능하다고 보았다.
Seol Tae-hee was a philosopher of Confucian study and education, and a social activist who led social movements through press and guild activities. While working for the Association for Promotion of Korean Goods, he argued for the reconstruction of Korean society on the basis of traditional Confucianism unlike the others who stressed strengthening of the nation through self-development. Seol Tae-hee’s idea of social movement and practicalism stemmed from his original thinking in which Yangming-studies and Chathamology were combined. He argued that the original spirit of Confucianism lied in the practicalism for social changes, supporting Yangming-studies’s theory of Jihaenhabilon while criticizing the metaphysics of Neo-Confucianism. In doing so, he inherited the Chathamological view of the relation between reason and spirit which held that the reason cannot exist by itself whereas the spirit can. While agreeing with the ideology of Socialism in opposing private ownership of lands, Seol Tae-hee was also against violence and blind following of the ideology resulting in the loss of independence. Instead he argued that the construction of society with liberty and equality that ensures the national survival in independence under the monarchy based on Confucianism was possible.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
Seol Tae-Hee, Yangming-studies, practicalism, independence, Unity of knowledge and action
