Videos by Don Baker
This is a personal account of what is was like to be in the South Korean city of Gwangju right af... more This is a personal account of what is was like to be in the South Korean city of Gwangju right after that city had endured ten days of assault by its own armed forces (because of Gwangju's resistance to a military coup). I explain how what I experienced changed me forever, and why it affected me so much. 10 views
This is a short video summary of a chapter in the book Invented Traditions in North and South Kor... more This is a short video summary of a chapter in the book Invented Traditions in North and South Korea, edited by Andrew Jackson and Cedarbough Saeji. In my chapter I discuss how the myth of Tan'gun, the misreading of early references to sŏn (misunderstood as immortals) in Silla Korea, and knowledge of actual internal alchemy practitioners in Chosŏn Korea were brought together in the 20th century to create an invented tradition of an ancient Korean religion taught by Tan'gun which provided ways for human beings to cultivate the ability to live long and healthy lives. 67 views
Conference Presentations by Don Baker
An examination of the meaning of the term Silhak (practical learning), as seen in the study of Yu... more An examination of the meaning of the term Silhak (practical learning), as seen in the study of Yu Hyŏngwon by James Palais
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As the earth’s population has exploded over the last century or so, and people have rushed from v... more As the earth’s population has exploded over the last century or so, and people have rushed from villages into dense urban environments, the need for us to get along with each other has increased exponentially. Yet, unfortunately, individualism and the pursuit of personal self-interest have also become more prevalent. The impersonal nature of contemporary crowded urban life has, all too often, numbed us to our responsibilities as members of the broader human community.
One possible solution to the increasing selfish individualism we see in the world today can be found in Korea’s rich Confucian tradition. Confucian ethics is an ethics of interpersonal interactions. The traditional word for morality,人倫 illyun, literally means “appropriate interactions within the human community.” By “appropriate interactions,” Confucianism means those interactions which place the common good ahead of personal benefit. Moreover, Confucianism offers some practical advice on how to cultivate our ability to do just that.
As we see in the famous Four-Seven debate, Korean Confucians paid special attention to the role emotions play in determining how we interact with our fellow human beings. They warned us against letting certain emotions, such as anger, fear, and hatred, blind us to our obligations to our fellow human beings. They also pointed out that one way to make it more likely we can keep such emotions from leading us astray is to cultivate a different emotional orientation, one of respect, 敬 gyeong, for everyone we interact with. Korea’s Confucians also encouraged us to develop a strong sense of empathy, 恕 seo, so that we can see things from the perspective of the persons we are interacting with. Korea’s Confucian tradition teaches us to pay close attention to how our emotions influence our interactions so that we can engage in more harmonious, and more mutually beneficial, interactions. That is a lesson the modern world should heed.
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The thirty-five-year long Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) stimulated a significant trans... more The thirty-five-year long Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) stimulated a significant transformation of the traditional Korean concept of religion, which in turn stimulated changes in the Koreans understanding of the secular and the sacred. Traditional Korea lacked an explicit definition of religion. Under Japanese rule, Koreans absorbed the modern Japanese bureaucratic definition of religion, which also included a definition of what Japanese colonial authorities came to call " pseudo-religions. " Moreover, when the Japanese brought state Shinto onto the peninsula and declared that it was sacred and secular, and not religious, they stimulated the Korean people into thinking of the sacred and the secular as distinct categories that to some degree overlapped with, but did not map perfectly onto, the distinction between the religious and the non-religious. By demanding that Shinto be treated as constituting a sacred secular realm, sacred to the extent that Shinto deities had to be treated by everyone as supernatural entities who deserved ritual homage and their shrines deemed inviolable, the colonial authorities created an implicit understanding of the secular sacred as superior to the religious realm which had a more limited claim to the sacred label. Moreover, the Japanese-imposed category of " pseudo-religions " caused Koreans to distinguish between that which was secular and unacceptable, such as shamanism, and that which claimed to be sacred and religious but was also unacceptable. By 1945 the categories in which Koreans placed various features of their religious culture were very different from what they had been in 1910.
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All peoples wherever they are on the face of the earth, once they have reached the stage of refle... more All peoples wherever they are on the face of the earth, once they have reached the stage of reflecting on issues that we today consider religious or philosophical, have asked themselves two questions: what is the proper way for human beings to behave and why do human beings so frequently fail to behave the way they should behave.
In this short part, I focus on three different Korean approaches to answering those questions. All three approaches, those of Buddhists, those of Neo-Confucianism such as T'oegye and Yulgok, and those of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong assume that morality refers to interactions within the human community. They also assume that the key to overcoming human moral frailty lies in our mind. However, they disagree on how the mind leads us astray as well as what we can do to keep it from doing that.
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This is a paper presented at a conference on Korea and Vietnam in Seoul in June, 2018. It looks a... more This is a paper presented at a conference on Korea and Vietnam in Seoul in June, 2018. It looks at the Korean Catholic drive to have more of Korea's many martyrs officially declared saints. It also looks at why certain people were canonized before others, and why certain people are now being promoted for canonization ahead of others. My argument is that those already canonized or being promoted as candidates for canonization were put forward for official sainthood to create specific images of Korean Catholic history.
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This is a paper presented at a conference on Buddhist-Christian relations held in Germany in 2015... more This is a paper presented at a conference on Buddhist-Christian relations held in Germany in 2015. I was asked to survey Buddhist-Christian relations in Korea. There isn't much to talk about before the 20th century. Even now there is little interaction between those two communities. What interaction there is has mostly come from the Christian side reaching out to engage in dialogue with Buddhists. Religious toleration in Korea is not complemented by much interaction across religious boundaries.
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Papers by Don Baker
Palgrave studies in comparative East-West philosophy, 2022
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International Journal of Asian Studies, 2018
regimes. Thirdly, I note that the evidence presented in the empirical chapters, while cohesive in... more regimes. Thirdly, I note that the evidence presented in the empirical chapters, while cohesive in terms of narrative, does not seem to reflect primary data collection based on interviews or fieldwork, instead merely using several secondary materials. This is a serious limitation, at least from the viewpoint of a development studies scholar, given that we already know a lot about the changing nature of states in Asia (and the global South more widely) as well as the tendency toward rent-seeking in resource-intensive economies. From my perspective, primary data based on interviews of political elites and stakeholders is necessary to strengthen the case study and to triangulate what is otherwise a well-documented story in the book (though I am sure other scholars will disagree with me on this point). Overall, this is well-focussed research, with a clear narrative and command over the details of the forestry governance reforms, and is well placed to engage with broader questions related to state–society relations and state transformation in Asia. While I would prefer a more coherent thread linking the empirical work and the theorization of the state and the place of natural resources in development, the book provides sufficient evidence to move forward our contemporary understanding of why donor agencies have failed in developing countries in Asia. For these reasons, the book is recommended for area studies specialists interested in Indochina and forestry governance.
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Korean Silhak Review
An examination of the meaning of the term Silhak (practical learning), as seen in the study of Yu... more An examination of the meaning of the term Silhak (practical learning), as seen in the study of Yu Hyŏngwon by James Palais
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Emotions in Korean Philosophy and Religion
This chapter discusses the Four-Seven Debate and the Horak Debate, the two major philosophical de... more This chapter discusses the Four-Seven Debate and the Horak Debate, the two major philosophical debates of Korean Neo-Confucianism and analyzes how Korean Neo-Confucians in the Joseon dynasty understood and explained emotions in their theories of the mind, morality, and human nature. Although the Korean thinkers respected and followed the philosophical framework of the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, they also developed their own theories of emotions. The philosophical significance of Korean Neo-Confucianism lies in its unique moral psychology, the moral psychology of the emotional mind with its dedication to the moral nature of human beings and the regulative principle of the universe.
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Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Korean Religions, 2021
The thirty-five-year long Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) stimulated a significant trans... more The thirty-five-year long Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) stimulated a significant transformation of the traditional Korean concept of religion, which in turn stimulated changes in the Koreans understanding of the secular and the sacred. Traditional Korea lacked an explicit definition of religion. Under Japanese rule, Koreans absorbed the modern Japanese bureaucratic definition of religion, which also included a definition of what Japanese colonial authorities came to call " pseudo-religions. " Moreover, when the Japanese brought state Shinto onto the peninsula and declared that it was sacred and secular, and not religious, they stimulated the Korean people into thinking of the sacred and the secular as distinct categories that to some degree overlapped with, but did not map perfectly onto, the distinction between the religious and the non-religious. By demanding that Shinto be treated as constituting a sacred secular realm, sacred to the extent that Shinto deities had to be treated by everyone as supernatural entities who deserved ritual homage and their shrines deemed inviolable, the colonial authorities created an implicit understanding of the secular sacred as superior to the religious realm which had a more limited claim to the sacred label. Moreover, the Japanese-imposed category of " pseudo-religions " caused Koreans to distinguish between that which was secular and unacceptable, such as shamanism, and that which claimed to be sacred and religious but was also unacceptable. By 1945 the categories in which Koreans placed various features of their religious culture were very different from what they had been in 1910.
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Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Choson Korea, 2017
This chapter explains the traditional philosophical and religious tradition of Korea in order to ... more This chapter explains the traditional philosophical and religious tradition of Korea in order to elucidate what a radical challenge Christianity posed when it entered Korea at the end of the 18th century. It also discusses the traditional social structure and legal system of Chosŏn Korea as well as the factionalism that was characteristic of its politics.
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Historian, 2017
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Volume 3: 1400-1800, 2012
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The Journal of Asian Studies, 1990
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Videos by Don Baker
Conference Presentations by Don Baker
One possible solution to the increasing selfish individualism we see in the world today can be found in Korea’s rich Confucian tradition. Confucian ethics is an ethics of interpersonal interactions. The traditional word for morality,人倫 illyun, literally means “appropriate interactions within the human community.” By “appropriate interactions,” Confucianism means those interactions which place the common good ahead of personal benefit. Moreover, Confucianism offers some practical advice on how to cultivate our ability to do just that.
As we see in the famous Four-Seven debate, Korean Confucians paid special attention to the role emotions play in determining how we interact with our fellow human beings. They warned us against letting certain emotions, such as anger, fear, and hatred, blind us to our obligations to our fellow human beings. They also pointed out that one way to make it more likely we can keep such emotions from leading us astray is to cultivate a different emotional orientation, one of respect, 敬 gyeong, for everyone we interact with. Korea’s Confucians also encouraged us to develop a strong sense of empathy, 恕 seo, so that we can see things from the perspective of the persons we are interacting with. Korea’s Confucian tradition teaches us to pay close attention to how our emotions influence our interactions so that we can engage in more harmonious, and more mutually beneficial, interactions. That is a lesson the modern world should heed.
In this short part, I focus on three different Korean approaches to answering those questions. All three approaches, those of Buddhists, those of Neo-Confucianism such as T'oegye and Yulgok, and those of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong assume that morality refers to interactions within the human community. They also assume that the key to overcoming human moral frailty lies in our mind. However, they disagree on how the mind leads us astray as well as what we can do to keep it from doing that.
Papers by Don Baker
One possible solution to the increasing selfish individualism we see in the world today can be found in Korea’s rich Confucian tradition. Confucian ethics is an ethics of interpersonal interactions. The traditional word for morality,人倫 illyun, literally means “appropriate interactions within the human community.” By “appropriate interactions,” Confucianism means those interactions which place the common good ahead of personal benefit. Moreover, Confucianism offers some practical advice on how to cultivate our ability to do just that.
As we see in the famous Four-Seven debate, Korean Confucians paid special attention to the role emotions play in determining how we interact with our fellow human beings. They warned us against letting certain emotions, such as anger, fear, and hatred, blind us to our obligations to our fellow human beings. They also pointed out that one way to make it more likely we can keep such emotions from leading us astray is to cultivate a different emotional orientation, one of respect, 敬 gyeong, for everyone we interact with. Korea’s Confucians also encouraged us to develop a strong sense of empathy, 恕 seo, so that we can see things from the perspective of the persons we are interacting with. Korea’s Confucian tradition teaches us to pay close attention to how our emotions influence our interactions so that we can engage in more harmonious, and more mutually beneficial, interactions. That is a lesson the modern world should heed.
In this short part, I focus on three different Korean approaches to answering those questions. All three approaches, those of Buddhists, those of Neo-Confucianism such as T'oegye and Yulgok, and those of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong assume that morality refers to interactions within the human community. They also assume that the key to overcoming human moral frailty lies in our mind. However, they disagree on how the mind leads us astray as well as what we can do to keep it from doing that.