The tradition of pursuing integrated studies of humanistic introspection about human’s ethics and philosophical research about nature vanished in the 19th century. In the beginning of 20th century when occidental studies surged, it was already common to think that yangban, or Korean aristocrats should study law or politics, instead of engaging in the industries as it is written in the newspaper Hwangsung Shinmun in 1909. Also in the Japanese colonial era, the people of Chosun were so indifferent about science that in 1920s there were writings in journals such as Gaebyuk and Byeolgungon grieving over students and teachers who disdained natural sciences and only attempted to study humanities.

 

  After liberation, as Korea employed scientific technology as a tool for economic development and used humanities ideologically, natural sciences only got distant. Critical humanists concentrated on criticizing dictatorial government’s justification of themselves in the name of economic development, and kept aloof from science, which was considered to have taken a great part in the economic growth.

 

  Throughout the 70s and 80s, Korea’s conscious humanists resisted or at least took a critical stance on autocracy, growth, development and scientific technology, while scientific technicians who only got narrow education on their major were apathetic towards other issues, especially social ones. In this situation, the gap between natural sciences and humanities were no longer a dispute of priority as the knowledge of culture but developed into a serious aspect of confrontation surrounding the set of values determining which direction individual’s life and society should progress to.

 

  Still, professors who teach humanities in universities emphasize that the bottom line of humanities is to give answers to questions such as “How should we live?” or “Which life is worthy of being called ‘right?’”. Of course, this is partially reasonable. However, the problem is that in modern days, education of humanities such as history, philosophy, and ethics is just not enough to get a meaningful answer to a sophisticated question like “How should we live?” In order for us, who need to live through this unsettled technological society, to properly answer to this question, it is necessary to understand more about fruits of science, which will allow us to have a better grasp of humanity, the relationship between scientific technology and society, and characteristics of scientific attitude and means of research. While sticking to the dichotomy that humanities deal with values and science deals with facts, both humanities and science are no other than a cripple.

 

  Recently, however, Korea is beginning to keep up with the trend of consilience. In 2006, not long after the beginning of 21st century, the declaration of the crisis of humanities started by the professors of Humanities College at Korea University extended to the Humanities Week, and there were some fresh voices claiming that humanities should embrace natural sciences to overcome the crisis. Meanwhile, several academic societies including Seoul National University held forums and symposiums about consilience and communication between disciplines.

 

  Nowadays, even students’ curriculum is headed toward consilience. It’s a measure that combines humanities and natural sciences into one which currently splits students’ future career in two. It is still uncertain if the merge is truly a method for practicing consilience. Still, this could be seen as carrying on Seoul National University’s legacy of natural sciences-humanities combined entrance examination which took place a few years ago and the proof of our society that it is aiming to tear down the barrier between disciplines.
Peter Drucker, a master of business administration once said “21st century is going to be an era of knowledge, and in the era of knowledge, there is no end to learning.” Now, as a tenth of 21st century has passed, it is necessary for us to contemplate about which attitude we should have in order to survive the era of knowledge.

 

Reference
Hong, Seong-Wook.(2007). Natural Sciences and Humanities of 21st Century Korea. In Jae-cheon Choi & Il-Woo Ju. eds., Consilience of Knowledge: Beyond the Border of Studies. pp. 273-297.eum books.

 
 

By Jong-Seo Park (DG editor-in-chief)
& Eui-Jun Song (DG editor)