SKKU Professor Doil Kim Publishes Book with Oxford University Press on the Contemporary Value of Confucian Humility

- Reinterprets Confucian humility not as “self-abasement,” but as a key resource for cultivating mature moral character

- Demonstrates the global competitiveness of Korean humanities through an original interdisciplinary study bridging philosophy and psychology

SKKU announced that Professor Doil Kim of the Department of Confucian and Eastern Philosophy has published his monograph, The Art of Seeing Beyond Oneself: A Confucian Perspective on Humility, with Oxford University Press on December 17, 2025.

Oxford University Press is one of the world’s most prestigious academic publishers. This publication signifies that Professor Kim’s research has been acknowledged at the highest level of academic excellence in the global scholarly community, marking a significant achievement that elevates both Sungkyunkwan University and the standing of Korean humanities.

The book offers a novel redefinition of “humility,” a concept often misunderstood in modern society. In modern Western philosophy, Confucian humility has frequently been interpreted negatively as “self-abasement” or “self-sacrifice” involving the relinquishment of individual rights. However, Professor Kim demonstrates that Confucian humility is not merely about lowering oneself; rather, it is a crucial ethical resource that enables individuals to transcend a narrow sense of self and to engage with others and the world from a broader, more inclusive perspective. In this sense, humility becomes central to the cultivation of moral character.

This work is particularly significant as it represents a collaborative research outcome of the “Center for the Contemporary Study of East Asian Classics and Critical Confucianism,” directed by Professor Kim. Since 2021, the center has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and has pursued sustained research under the guiding question: “How can we contribute to a harmonious society through humble citizens?” The publication of this international monograph demonstrates that the collaborative model of Korean humanities research can achieve global relevance and scholarly impact.

Methodologically, the book adopts an innovative approach. Professor Kim conducts a close analysis of classical Chinese texts as well as Neo-Confucian writings from the Song and Ming dynasties, while simultaneously engaging with Western analytic philosophy and contemporary psychology. By critically examining existing psychological theories of humility in East Asian contexts and comparing them with Western philosophical discussions of humility, the study opens new interdisciplinary horizons at the intersection of philosophy and psychology.

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea under the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute Support Program (NRF-2021S1A5C2A02089018).

※ Title: The Art of Seeing Beyond Oneself: A Confucian Perspective on Humility

※ Publisher: Oxford University Press

※ Link:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-art-of-seeing-beyond-oneself-9780197834213?q=Doil%20kim&lang=en&cc=kr