Jeong Yak-yong is remembered for arguments the next generation could not ignore.
The record lists Jeong Yak-yong as Korean scholar and philosopher (1762 - 1836).
Jeong Yak-yong was born at Gwangju in 1762. His recorded nationality is Joseon.
Enlightenment argument moved philosophy into public life: it was now about government, rights and religion as much as metaphysics.
A philosophical position survives not by being proved but by resisting every attempt to dispose of it.
That the work was done from Joseon matters: philosophical traditions, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.
Jeong Yak-yong died in 1836, aged 74. The arguments remain in print, which is the form in which philosophy survives.
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