道德性의 形式과 內容

Abstract

도덕교육에 관한 Kohlberg의 인지발달적 접근은 그 형식주의적 특징으로 말미암아 도덕성의 형식과 내용의 관련 문제를 도덕교육의 중요한 이론적 문제로 부각시켰다. 그 이후 도덕교육의 목적이나 성격을 다룬 학위논문들이 Kohlberg 접근의 대안으로 제시하는 통합적 접근은 내용과 형식의 진정한 통합이 아닌, Kohlberg의 접근을 포함한 다양한 접근의 가법적 병치를 통합으로 내세운다. 내용과 형식의 진정한 통합은, 성리학의 이론에서 전형적으로 나타나는 바와 같이, 양자를 동일하지도 않고 상이하지도 않은 관계로, 즉 내용은 형식의 표현이요 형식은 내용의 표현되기 이전의 표준이라는 관점으로 파악하는 것을 뜻한다. 성리학의 이론은 또한 모든 교육은 도덕교육이며 도덕교육의 이론은 그 자체가 교육의 이론임을 보여준다.

The one outstanding outcome of Kohlbergs cognitive―developmental approach in the discussion of moral education is that it brought the issue of form and content of morality to the front. In most of the dissertations written during the past two or three decades, the Kohlbergs approach is characterized not unjustly as exclusively formalistic, calling forth the integrative approach to moral education as the alternative. It is evident, however, that the integrative approach as proposed by most of the integrationists is not integrative not only in the obvious sense that it is differently conceived among the proponents, but in the more important sense that the so―called integration is in reality nothing but an additive juxtaposition of all the possible approaches including the Kohlbergs. The net result following from this way of integrating is obviously that the magnificent potential of the Kohlbergs approach in the development of character, possibly unrecognized by Kohlberg himself, is unjustly weakened and undermined. The Neo―Confucianist theory of education, especially in its ethical aspect, provides a typical example of true integration of form and content. Here, the form is the unmanifested standard of the content, the content being the manifestation of the form, and accordingly the two are neither exactly the same nor entirely different. In the Neo―Confucianist way of thinking, the form as the unmanifested standard is the pith of moral character, which can be developed not by the morally good behavior alone, but by all the educational processes, the most important part of which is the education of school subjects. Thus, in the Neo―Confucianist theory, the commonplace that all true education is moral education can have a true literal meaning.