Recently, we see almost everyday in our society the non-educative incidents such as corruption and evasion of the law are reported in the media which were committed by a group called leadership of society. In this circumstances, we would like to review the meaning of nation and the role of intellectuals. First of all, nation may connote many meanings but primarily we can understand its image from the aspect of community conception. Even though, with the stream of times, our understanding of nation is changing and is expressed through diversified theories, the nature of community is not changing. But such community is definitely not a general one and has no basic legitimacy. But it is based only on freedom, equality, justice and publicness, and materialized in the concept of human rights and the realization of humanity. This materialization is continuously and newly established and criticized by the role and function of nation and the justification of nation's power. Therefore nation should be a supreme ruling group, and at the same time a minimum ruling group to individuals. The nation's role and justification should accompany universal understanding about human, and its existence shall be justified by the activities for these. And it shall be given when it protects touches of humanity and guarantees the rights to live like a human being and disengagedness. Then what shall be the role of intellectuals in the above mentioned 'nation'? First of all, the intellectuals transcend educated people. The intellectuals mean educated people who are participating public domain on the basis of their knowledge and philosophical view. In other words, the role of intellectuals of this generation requires understanding of diversified community type, enhancing duplicating spirit of community and establishing directivity for this. The intellectuals shall have roles of criticism and warning when nation's reason for being is not achieved and nation has lost its justification by abandoning common good, human rights and principle of justice. That shall be a performance of the very role of intellectuals, which they are criticizing and correcting nation's abandonment of its reason of existence and nation's power turns to operating as violence. The relationship between nation and intellectuals of this generation shall position in realizing touches of humanity with universal intelligence and in maintaining and realizing necessary spirit of community. This is an understanding of universal humanity and universal community spirit, and means the materialization process of such understanding.

• 신승환(가톨릭대학교 철학과) | Shin Seong Hwan