A Political Philosophical Study on ‘Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang’ and ‘Guarding against Self-deception’: A New Approach to Commensurability

The philosophy of ‘Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang’ in the Daesoon Jinrihoe provides practitioners with a third path, which can be understood as a thin commensurability. While the Nietzschean tradition emphasizes heterogeneity over homogeneity and the Hegelian tradition emphasizes homogeneity over heterogeneity, the philosophy of ‘Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang’ seeks ‘homogeneity within heterogeneity.’ This notion can be described as the intersection or entanglement between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in a reciprocal relationship. However, this intersection between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ does not naturally occur. It demands a practical attitude called ‘Guarding against Self-deception,’ which corresponds to the principle states of ‘right Yin and right Yang.’ The practical attitude of ‘Guarding against Self-deception’ is related to an ethical attitude of the self that is sensitive to the gaze of the other. A self that is sensitive to the gaze of the other refers to an openness to the other to the extent of being captivated by the gaze of the other. In other words, the practical attitude of ‘Guarding against Self-deception’ leads to a direct and essential dialogical relationship between the self and the other, where both parties exchange their uniqueness without distorted perspectives. ‘Guarding against Self-deception’ for ‘Virtuous Concordance of Yin and Yang’ pursues a direct and essential dialogical relationship between the self and the other and the reconstruction of the public realm based on ‘Guarding against Self-deception’ for the sake of commensurability. This is proposed by imposing the normative condition of the exclusion of political positions. The public realm established through the exclusion of political positions is manifested as the experiential lives of the members of the community towards the world, which is the material basis of political positions. Dialogue between the self and the other based on the experiential lives of the members of the community is presented as sympathy that occurs on a physical level. The meaning embedded in the other’s experiential life is fully conveyed to oneself and that influences one’s subjectivity. Thus, the construction of the public realm through the exclusion of political positions based on the practical attitude of ‘Guarding against Self-deception’ aims to restore a direct and essential dialogue relationship between the self and the other.