Period
Joseon
1392–1910
The Joseon dynasty made Neo-Confucianism Korea's dominant thought, home to the Four-Seven Debate of Yi Hwang and Yi I and to Jeong Yakyong's later critique.
Under the Joseon dynasty, from 1392 to 1910, Neo-Confucianism eclipsed Buddhism as Korea’s leading philosophy. Its thinkers made the relation between principle and material force, and between human nature and the feelings, the centre of long debates, above all the Four-Seven Debate between Yi Hwang, Gi Daeseung and later Yi I. In the eighteenth century women such as Im Yunjidang wrote on Neo-Confucianism, Catholic ideas reached Korea through Chinese books, and Jeong Yakyong rebuilt Confucian ethics on new foundations. Buddhist thinkers, meanwhile, answered Confucian criticism and sought to harmonise the two traditions.
- Traditions
- Korean
Philosophers
- Gihwa1376 – c. 1433
- Yi Hwang1501–1570
- Gi Daeseung1527–1572
- Yi I1536–1584
- Im Yunjidang1721–1793
- Jeong Yakyong1762–1836
- Baek Yongseong1864–1940
Sources
- Kevin N. Cawley, Korean Confucianism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Lucy Hyekyung Jee, Korean Buddhism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Halla Kim, Korean Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy