[KS] More on "Sirhak"

[Don Baker]

I wrote my previous message between classes, so
I diddn't have the time to add a note of caution
about the term "sirhak" or "Practical Learning."
Let me do so now. 

If you look over volume 2 of the Sourcebook,
you will notice that there is no section
on "sirhak," nor is that term used very
much in that book. I avoided references
to a "School of Practical Learning" for a
reason---I don't think that term is very
useful. The differences between thinkers
such as Pak Chiwon, Yi Ik, and Kim Cheonghui
are too great to include them within
one philosophical school. Moreover,
as Jim Palais has shown in his encylopedic
study of Yu Hyongwon, many of the supposedly
"practical learning scholars" were actually
quite traditional. 

Don Baker
Associate Professor, Asian Studies
Canada-Korea Business Council Chair in Korean Studies
University of British Columbia


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