윌리엄 길버트 · 서강대학교 철학과
PhD Student, Department of Philosophy · Sogang University
I'm a philosopher and PhD student at Sogang University, working on Korean Neo-Daoism. My research follows how the Goryeo poet-philosopher Yi Gyubo reworked Chinese Xuanxue into what I call “affective Neo-Daoism”: a way of meeting suffering by talking back, often irreverently, to the Creator (造物).
自然 - the way things generate themselves
My work moves across Korean and Chinese Daoism, Neo-Confucianism, and folk religion, traditions Korean thinkers rarely kept in separate boxes, and I don't either. My dissertation, on Korean Neo-Daoism in the Goryeo period, anchors that range: the full argument lives in Research below.
The common thread is a habit: taking materials often dismissed as ornament or syncretism seriously as philosophy.
Following this work has taken me from Seoul to Rome, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Budapest, and into broader questions about how philosophical traditions don’t just travel, they transform. Alongside my dissertation, I serve as an editorial assistant on Oxford and Routledge volumes on Korean philosophy.
Areas of specialization
Korean Philosophy · Chinese Philosophy (esp. Daoism) · Comparative Philosophy
Areas of competence
Confucian Ethics · Aesthetics (esp. East Asian) · Premodern Korean Religion and Intellectual History
Dissertation · in progress
Sogang University · Supervisor: Prof. Halla Kim · expected 2027
Argues that Goryeo Korea (918–1392) developed a philosophically distinctive mode of Neo-Daoist thought - centered on non-teleological self-generation (ziran 自然), literary spontaneity, and an affective negotiation with cosmic indifference - building on the Wei-Jin foundations of Wang Bi and Guo Xiang. The argument moves through the self-styled Seven Worthies of the Eastern Land, whose collective withdrawal from court life enacted these values as a lived form of life; Yi Gyubo’s (1168–1241) cosmology of spontaneous self-generation and his literary theory of “new intention” (sinui 新意); and his debate with Yi Inro over citation and originality in poetic composition. Its central original contribution is affective Neo-Daoism: the concept naming Yi Gyubo’s decades-long practice of addressing, blaming, and diminishing a “little Creator” his own cosmology has already dissolved - read as what a non-teleological metaphysics costs a mortal, suffering body to actually live by.
Chapter roadmap
1. Xuanxue in Transit - reception and conditions in Goryeo
2. The Seven Worthies of the Eastern Land - Neo-Daoism as lived practice
3. Yi Gyubo’s Cosmology - spontaneous self-generation and the rejection of teleology
4. Ziran and Literary Creativity - the Yi Gyubo–Yi Inro debate
5. Affective Neo-Daoism - the “Little Creator” in Yi Gyubo
6. Toward a Theory of Korean Neo-Daoism
The argument of chapters 3 and 5 is available in early access from Philosophy East and West.
Related research threads
“Spontaneous Self-Generation and the ‘Little Creator’: Yi Kyubo’s Affective Neo-Daoism in Koryŏ Korea”
Philosophy East and West, 2028
Read on Project MUSE ↗“Ordering Emotion through Sound: Ritual Music and Heart-Mind Cultivation in Korean Neo-Confucianism”
European Journal of Korean Studies, 2026
“Religious Syncretism between Daoist and Shamanistic Imagery in Goguryeo Tomb Murals”
The Review of Korean Studies, 2026
Read the article ↗“Reconsidering Korean Modernity: The Sirhak Movement and the Legacy of Tasan Chŏng Yak-yong”
International Journal of Korean History, 2026
“Confucian Care Ethics in Korean Governance: From King Chŏngjo’s Measles Policies to South Korea’s COVID-19 Response”
Korean Studies
“Daoist Elements in Korean Sansin Worship: Paintings, Rituals, and Geomancy”
International Journal of Korean Humanities and Social Sciences
“The Way East: Daoism and Its Transmission to Korea”
Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest
“Toward Korean Neo-Daoism: Daoist Philosophy in the Writings of Yi Gyubo”
NAKPA Panel, APA Pacific Division Meeting
Community · 2024–present
r/KoreanPhilosophy
Founder and moderator of the subreddit for Korean philosophy - a growing home for readers, students, and the simply curious.
Press · 2025
Sogang Story No. 115
Profiled by the Sogang Gazette, Sogang University’s newspaper, on studying Korean philosophy as an international researcher.
Interview · 2026
Between Traditions
On Korean philosophy and the limits of universality, for the APA Blog’s Reports from Abroad series.
Read the interview ↗
Public writing · 2025
Rediscovering a Neglected Tradition
A review of Korean Philosophy: Sources and Interpretations for the Blog of the APA, with André M. Penna-Firme.
Read the review ↗
Online courses · 2021–2023
Online courses on Korean philosophy
Five courses co-produced with the Center for K-Academic Expansion in Philosophy.
Comprehensive overviews
Korean Philosophy: Sources and Interpretations, 2015 - ed. Youn Sa-soon
Religious and Philosophical Traditions of Korea, 2019 - Kevin Cawley
Stanford Encyclopedia: Korean Philosophy, 2022 - Halla Kim
Korean Confucianism
The Four-Seven Debate, 1994 - Michael Kalton et al.
Chŏng Yagyong: Korea’s Challenge to Orthodox Neo-Confucianism, 1997 - Mark Setton
Stanford Encyclopedia: Korean Confucianism, 2026 - Kevin Cawley
Korean Buddhism
Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen, 1991 - Robert E. Buswell
Wŏnhyo’s Philosophy of Mind, 2012 - ed. A. Charles Muller & Cuong T. Nguyen
Stanford Encyclopedia: Korean Buddhism, 2025 - Lucy Hyekyung Jee
Korean Daoism
Daoism in Korea, in Daoism Handbook, 2000 - Jung Jae-Seo
Taoism in Korea: Past and Present, 2010 - Donald Baker
Korean Neo-Confucian Perspectives on Laozi and Zhuangzi, 2026 - Tae Hyun Kim
Korean Shamanism
Concerning the Origin and Formation of Korean Shamanism, 1973 - Jung Young Lee
Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits, 1985 - Laurel Kendall
Korean Shamanism: The Cultural Paradox, 2003 - Chongho Kim
