Contemporary Korean Political Thought in Search of a Post-Eurocentric Approach

From the publisher’s website:

This book is a collection of essays written by Korean political theorists addressing the study of contemporary Korean political thought on the premise that such study should be carried out with a post-Eurocentric approach. The negative effects brought about by the domination of Western-centrism are pervasive in academic disciplines as well as in everyday life of South Korea. This book outlines three strategic approaches to combating Western-centrism: (1) theorizing contemporary Korean politics from a Korean perspective, (2) the Koreanization of Western political thought, and (3) modernizing traditional East Asian political thought. These essays examine and explore the validity of the three strategic approaches with the objective of coping with Western-centrism in Korean political theory. These contributing authors share a concern about Western-centrism, but approach it from different directions and at different layers.

Kang Jung In is professor in the Department of Political Science at Sogang University.

Contents

Part 1 Theorizing Contemporary Korean Politics

1. The Ideological Terrain of Contemporary Korean Politics: From the Perspective of the Dialectic of Non-simultaneity | Kang Jung In
2. How the National Division and the Korean War Affected South Korean Politics: The Notions of “Liberty,” “Democracy,” and “Welfare” | Kim Dong-Choon
3. Liberalism and Modern State-Building in South Korea | Moon Jiyoung
4. The Politics and Political Science of the Clash of Civilizations: A Preliminary Study of the Intellectual Identity of Korean Political Science | Yang Seung-Tae
5. Dongnipsinmun and Republican Democracy in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea | Lee Dongsoo

Part 2 Koreanization of Western Political Thought

6. Redefining Citizenship in the Multicultural Society: A Korean Case | Kim Nam-Kook
7. Civil Patriotism and Liberal Collectivism in South Korea: A Sentimentalist Approach | Kim Sungmoon
8. Western Feminism and Korean Feminism | Kim Hee-Kang
9. A Study on the Acceptance of Rousseau’s Thought and Current Research in Korea | Kim Yong-Min
10. Rawls in Korea | Jang Dong-Jin

Part 3 Modernizing Traditional East Asian Political Thought

11. The Concept of the ‘Public’ in Traditional Korea and Its Modern Variation | Lee Seung-Hwan
12. A Constitutionalist Interpretation of Confucian Politics in the Early Joseon Dynasty | Kim Bi-Hwan
13. The Confucian Tradition and Democracy in Korean Political Thought: The Distance between Mínběn (民本) and Mínzhǔ (民主) | Kim Seog Gun
14. Liberalist Human Rights and the Confucian Ethics of Human Relationships | Lee Sang-ik