강유위의 순자학: ‘소강’ 단계의 도덕과 욕망

초록

Kang You Wei(1858~1927) regarded Confucius as an idealist who tried to reform the corrupt society of man, not a conservative who tried to keep the old. Therefore, the reform idea was to solve the problems of reality he faced based on Confucius’ moral idealism. Among the Mencius and Xunzi who inherited Confucius' ideas, he placed Xunzi’s desire theory and social philosophy at the center of his reform theory. For him, desire was understood as the driving force behind civilization's progress, and human intellectual ability was an important source of political and social order reform. In particular, Xunzi’s philosophy has become a theory necessary to control desires and build a harmonious social order at the stage of ‘Xiao Kang’(小康) requested to evolve into an ideal society called ‘Da Tong’(大同). He was well aware of the fact that the modern Western democratic system and capitalist civilization could be born on the basis of a rational relationship between human reason and desire. This paper attempts to examine how Xunzi's human nature theory and social philosophy are understood within Kang You Wei's reform ideology and why Xunzi's philosophy was needed.

키워드