[KS] Yu Kilchun
Frank Hoffmann
frank at koreaweb.ws
Sun May 7 13:13:31 EDT 2006
With its idealistic notions of social progress and failure this is,
same as his texts on the history of other European nations and his
writing in general, written under the influence of contemporary
British and American historians. Works by non- if not
anti-neo-Darwinist historians such as Leopold von Ranke and many
other important historians -- works that at the time still informed a
majority of continental Europeans, have not found their way to Yu. Or
maybe it really just was a pick-and-choose situation, a conscious
choice, a matter of what appealed to a reformist leader from an
economically and politically stagnating country on the verge of being
annexed by its neighbor. Yet again, while this is certainly the
leading historiographical take on this issue, we should note that
this understanding grew right out of the American neo-Weberian (and
still neo-Darwinist) historigraphic tradition. We might well ask why
such views were at the time not really that popular in other nations
with similar plights ... say for example Poland. Anyone still
following me -);
Okay then: During the entire 19th century Poland was, just like
Korea, fighting over its independence -- here with the Russians, the
Austrians, and the Germans. Just like Korea a country with a great
and old culture, in political and economic terms it lost out step by
step to its neighbors. Polish provinces fell under Russian
administration and German farmers settled in Silesia and took over
Polish lands. As a result, by 1900 over a million Poles had
emmigrated to the United States. Several diplomatic as well as
military attempts to regain independence had failed.
But other than for Korean reform and independence movement scholars
neo-Darwinism did not so easily become the great runner in Poland.
Maybe because Poland is overwhelmingly Catholic? It certainly seems
so, as neo-Darwinian theory is incompatible with Christian faith
(clearly stated so in harmony by both, the Catholic Church and
neo-Darwinist thinkers).
We now have a convincing explanation for Poland. But how about other
continental European nations? Why was neo-Darwinism here of some
appeal during the late 19th century but never really took the lead in
teh pool of new ideologies? Why so in Great Britain and in the United
States? In short, my main doubt as regards to Korea and neo-Darwinism
concerns the *inevitability* in which histories have recorded Korea's
embracing of such pseudo-scientific ideology.
Best,
Frank
--
--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws
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