왕양명(王陽明)의 ‘양지’(良知)와 칼 융(C.G. Jung)의 ‘자기’(Self) - 윤리철학과 심리 치유의 접목을 모색하며 -

This paper comparatively examines Wang Yangming’s concept of ‘liangzhi’ (innate moral knowledge) and Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of ‘the Self’, exploring how moral philosophy and analytical psychology can converge around a shared concern for psychological healing and moral maturation within the human interior. Wang Yangming’s ‘liangzhi’ is understood as an immanent moral and ontological center inherent in each individual, serving as the basis for ethical judgment and practice, while Jung’s ‘Self’ denotes the psychological center of wholeness encompassing both consciousness and the unconscious. This study emphasizes that ‘liangzhi’ and ‘the Self’ structurally resonate in that both enable the regulation and restoration of life through an autonomous inner center, rather than reliance on external norms or transcendent authority. Furthermore, by analyzing Wang’s practice of ‘zhi liangzhi’ and Jung’s process of ‘individuation’ as parallel inner dynamics of activation, correction, and purification, this paper demonstrates that both traditions share a common logic of self-restoration integrating moral practice and psychological healing. On this basis, the study conceptualizes ‘liangzhi’ and ‘the Self’ as forming a “pluralistic ethics of self-maturation,” in which moral, psychological, spiritual, and unconscious dimensions are multilayeredly integrated, and proposes a theoretical framework for rethinking the recovery of the human mind and ethical transformation in contemporary transitional society.