About 300 students gathered in the final debate
On November 18th, the grand final of the SNU debate tournament was held at SNU’s facility of Liberal Education. Team Ethos and team Biting Wind debated on the question “Is there a reason to live a righteous life?” 42 teams, which included 112 participants, took part in the tournament, with only 16 teams, consisting of 43 people, making it to the finals.
The Faculty of Liberal Education, which organized the competition, was partly inspired by the LEE Su-hyun, who made headlines in 2001. He was a Korean student in Japan who risked his life to save a drunk man’s life by jumping on a railway track. This incident raised the questions: what is the right way to live? Is it something we must be prepared to die for?
AHN Hyo-jin (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) opened the debate by claiming that “a righteous life leads to self-realization.” To this, GONG Chae-rin (Department of Business Studies) contested, “In reality, this is not feasible as we are often faced with situations in which self-interest clashes with morality.” The debate was philosophical, and at times abstract, but all three hundred members of the audience were fixated on the riveting debate.
A student is asking questions to the participants
Team Ethos stated, “LEE Su-hyun saved another person’s life by risking his own. He acted on his moral code, and was true to himself. A righteous life will lead to the self-realization of a person, and eventually, ultimate happiness through the fulfilment of the values he holds dear.” In response, team Biting Wind replied, “Humans were not born for the sole purpose of a righteous life. Going against their self-interest in order to adhere to a rigid morality is a retreat from self-realization.”
The debate resembled a discussion of two sides exploring ideas on the right way to live, rather than two parties claiming an absolute point. Chief Judge, Professor LIM Hong-bae (Department of German Language and Literature) declared team Biting Wind to be victorious as he stated, “The subject of the debate was one which could easily have tempted abstract thoughts of moral duty and its justifications. However, the practical approach of team Biting Wind most closely related to reality, and gave them the edge.”
The debate allowed the senior students a brief respite from the worries of everyday life, like the fierce competition of job employment, and provided an invigorating forum in which metaphysical questions of life, and its meaning were discussed. Professor AHN Byung-jik, head of the Faculty of Liberal Education revealed, “The subject may have been a cliché, but I wanted to bring it up as I believe it is one that a person would have to consider at least once, and have an answer for.”
Written by JUN Taehoon, SNU English Editor, taehoonjun@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr