I never thought of myself as a scholar. Of course, officially I am a scholar. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the university, and then published a number of papers. There are also a few personal books published. But my own reasons have never been directed toward any theoretical framework that people often describe as academic. Our lives and existence are essentially beyond the confines of the theoretical framework. Each person's life and existence has its own unique characteristics.

Looking back, I have always been a dreamer. When I was a fourth grader in elementary school, a teacher once told me, ‘It’s strange why a young child often looks out of a window at a distant mountain or is fascinated by the clouds that flow.’ When I was in middle and high school, I used to walk here and there almost every day for no particular reason. So there have been several incidents that have caused me to pay great attention to the humanities. One of them was reading James Joyce’s Portrait of a Young Artist when he was an engineering student. In particular, the following words left at the end of the novel by Steven Dedlerus left a great sensation in my heart.

“I will meet with the reality of experience a million times and forgive my race's conscience that has not yet been created in the smithy of my soul.”

My conscience is not yet created, what a strange word. One of the important features that distinguish humans from animals is their ability to think morally. The basis of morality is, of course, conscience. Does that mean that it is nothing more than a conscience still waiting for creation? But I immediately noticed what that meant. Our lives and beings, and our consciousness, are inherently free and unsystematic. Nevertheless, we meet everywhere with this system of standardizing or formalizing our lives and beings, our consciousness. The same is true of what is called moral, which most people consider right. The system of moral norms drives us to think and act in some way or another, regardless of our own individuality. As a result, consciousness eroded by morals is like a prisoner in prison. It is endlessly watched by an absolute and substantiated guard in the name of conscience.

I do not deny that man is a moral being. But true morality should be left as far as possible for all human beings to live freely in a manner commensurate with their own nature. Morality can be justified as long as it serves to preserve and promote the uniqueness and freedom of life. I think that all human beings are natural dreamers, and that the struggle for rights is a resistance to all the artificial tendencies that keep us from living as a dreamer. Nothing can trap our consciousness. Whenever these and other things in your life awaken the meaning and beauty of life and existence, you must learn to regard it as a call to free life and to respond. We are born as creators who forge the reality of vivid and beautiful experiences in their own way.

I recently published a book called <<Literature and Flesh / Body Ontology>> and <<Empathic Ontology>>. In these two books I have argued in many ways that humans can truly relate to others only if they are oriented towards a unique and free life. We do not want to sympathize with the enslaved spirit. We want to sympathize with a free spirit, a spirit that knows how to pack your life in your own way. When such hope is desperate, the consciences of our race, which have not yet been created, bounce a blue flame in our hearts

"I have been in the center of your heart from the beginning."

▲ Dept. of Liberal Arts College Prof. Han Sang-Youn