THE HISTORY OF KOREAN MENTALITY FORMATION: A SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH

Abstract

The high rate of economic development thatSouth Koreahas been demonstrating since the early 1960s is the point of interest for many researchers. However, the diligent and successful research of “South Korean miracle” is not possible without studying the nation’s mentality whose outstanding characteristics can be discovered in people’s diligence, in national history and artifacts, in folk art, forms of worship, traditions and language. In the process of studying the history of Korean mentality formation the author comes to conclusion that “the South Korean Miracle” could not happen without several fundamental characteristics of Korean mentality such as tremendous hard-working spirit, strong national identity, collectivism, thirst for knowledge, pragmatism and pursuit of material well-being what were formed in the process of history under the influence of geographical, socio-economic, political, cultural and religious factors.

Keywords

• south korea, “economic miracle”, history, ethnos, korean mentality