The appropriation of ‘enlightenment’ in modern Korea and Japan: Competing ideas of the enlightenment and the loss of the individual subject

Abstract

In recent decades in Korea, many significant changes in political, social and cultural dimensions have been held by the citizen’s initiative, where the revitalization of citizenship and strong civic unity have played a role. Yet, in regard to the characteristic of Korean citizenship, it seems that the aspect of individual subject has not been fully matured or issued; that is, there is a dissymmetry between the strong civic unity and a weak individual subject. This paper attempts to explore a possible historical account of why this has been the case by examining the historical development of the concept of enlightenment in modern Korea and Japan. ‘Enlightenment’, as a modern concept in Korea, was imported via Japan in the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century as in many other new concepts such as ‘democracy’ or ‘nation’. However, by comparison to the Western idea of the Enlightenment, its modern concept, Korean or Japanese, developed a different meaning in each own context, while lacking its original meaning essential to the creation of the ‘modern individual subject’ as a ‘citizen’. Hence, in modern Korea and Japan, the word ‘enlightenment’ is regarded as a historical concept with no contemporary relevance.

Keywords:

• Enlightenment
• civilization
• development
• education
• individual Subject
• national subject
• citizenship

Notes

1. The term ‘modern concept’ in this article designates those concepts that were formed after being imported from the West into modern Korea and Japan, as distinct from ‘traditional concept’.

2. An examination from the perspective of conceptual history, see Schmidt (2014).

3. Most scholars of Korea and Japan have typically translated ‘開化’ as ‘civilization’ or ‘enlightenment’. But this is ‘misleading’, for the word ‘enlightenment’ did not appear in the early modern Korea and Japan, and this term did not correspond to those meanings exactly. See Howland (2002, pp. 38–40). I suggest, as a translation of ‘開化’, ‘development’ on the basis of the contemporary dictionaries and usages, by which ‘開化’ connotes ‘self-development’, ‘improvement’, ‘the process of maturation’, ‘education’ etc., including ‘civilization’ and ‘enlightenment’. It is also intended that ‘開化’ should be told apart from ‘啓蒙’.

4. See Howland (2002); Conrad (2012).

5. The societies of modern Korea and Japan in many ways have been formed by accepting Western value systems. Hence, the examination of the appropriation of the word ‘enlightenment’, which symbolizes the foundation of Western civil society, can potentially provide some useful insights into the problems of contemporary civil society in Korea, not just the ideological issues facing the modern nation-state.

6. Morohashi (1955–2000) The Great Han–Japanese Dictionary [The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten] (Tokyo, Taishukan).

7. Diet Library form the Meiji Era (http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/993582).

8. Diet Library form the Meiji Era (http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/753066).

9. Diet Library form the Meiji Era (http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/761771).

10. Onishi Hajime (大西祝, 1864–1900) His Origin of Conscience, written as a philosophy dissertation for the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1889, was based on Kant’s moral philosophy; and his History of Western Philosophy, lecture notes written as a professor at Tokyo College (the former Waseda University) in 1891, is seen as the first systematic work on Western philosophy in early modern Japan. Onishi urged a thoroughgoing criticism without being limited by the object, synthesizing Kant’s critical philosophy with M. Adorno’s critical spirit.

11. Hajime (1897).

12. See Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, Seungjeongwon Ilgi (Journal of the Royal Secretariat), etc.,

13. Gil-jun (1996) complete works [Yu Giljun jeonseo], (Seoul, Ilchogak).

14. This was driven by a group who knew Japan very well, including the Minister of Education, Yu Gil-jun.