Think No Evil

Korean Values in the Age of Globalization

Bibliographic Data

ID7536008
AuthorsC F Alford (0000-0002-9948-2454, corresponding author)
Year1999
Pages224
Publication date1999-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThink No Evil (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCornell University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.7591/9781501720529
OpenAlexW637101609
Open LibraryOL33705232M
ISBN9781501720529
LanguageEN
Citations received33

In this investigation of the contemporary notion of evil, C. Fred Alford asks what we can learn about this concept, and about ourselves, by examining a society where it is unknown-where language contains no word that equates to the English term "evil." Does such a society look upon human nature more benignly? Do its members view the world through rose-colored glasses? Korea offers a fascinating starting point, and Alford begins his search for answers there.In conversations with hundreds of Koreans from diverse religions and walks of life-students, politicians, teachers, Buddhist monks, Confucian scholars, Catholic priests, housewives, psychiatrists, and farmers-Alford found remarkable agreement about the nonexistence of evil. Koreans regard evil not as a moral category but as an intellectual one, the result of erroneous Western thinking. For them, evil results from the creation of dualisms, oppositions between people and ideas.Alford's interviews often led to discussions about imported ways of thinking and the impact of globalization upon society at large. In particular, he was struck by how Koreans' responses to globalization matched Westerners' views about evil. In much of the world, he argues, globalization is the ultimate dualism-attractive for the enlightenment and freedom it brings, terrifying for the great social and personal upheaval it can cause

Globalization · Political science · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Japanese History and Culture · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · civilization · Foreign influences · International economic relations · Internationalism · Korea · Korea (South) · Social conditions · Social life and customs · Values

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