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Electric Ray: A Philosophy Publisher Trying to Close the Gap

What comes to mind when you think of philosophy? Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s quite difficult to understand and study? Here is a special person who helps people understand philosophy easily. He is Shin Woo-seung, the operator of Electric Ray, a philosophy publisher. Electric Ray is the publisher but it actually does many other things: translating, lecturing, awarding scholarships, etc. Most of all, it tries to reduce some of the ¡°gap problems¡± using philosophy and books. These gap problems include educational differences between the rich and the poor and regional differences between people living in the city and people living in the countryside. Now, let's meet the operator, Shin Woo-seung, and listen to his story.

Q. Can you introduce yourself briefly?

A. I run the philosophy publishing company Electric Ray. I was interested in cultural theory and art review before. The base of them came from a part of philosophy, so I naturally became interested in philosophy. I majored in aesthetics at Hong-ik University Graduate School. I also have interests in both the unstable and the new. There are some challenges in running Electric Ray, but I enjoy life¡¯s challenges, so I keep doing it.


Q. What does Electric Ray do?

A. Electric Ray is a ¡°publisher¡±, but it is more equivalent to an ¡°educational institution¡± which publishes books and is run by sponsors¡¯ voluntary donations. It focuses on people¡¯s understanding and tries to solve social problems together based on their understanding. Electric Ray publishes books once a month and study clubs are held six to eight times a week. Each week, I offer explanations of philosophy at my home or places where sponsors are at. Additionally, there is a scholarship held for graduate students majoring in philosophy.

Q. How did you get to set up Electric Ray?

A. One of reasons was the difficulty of studying philosophy. I used to attend many lectures to study philosophy but I couldn¡¯t understand many teachers¡¯ words. I was not alone in thinking that. It seemed teachers didn¡¯t care that most audiences didn¡¯t understand the lectures. For example, the teachers used difficult words, supposing the students probably knew those words already. I wanted to teach philosophy to people to improve their understanding. Another reason was to make studying meaningful. Electric Ray started from a study group. I felt it was a bit of monotonous during studying so I thought what it would be like to publish what I¡¯ve translated with my study group members. I wanted to tell them that study time was not boring, but rewarding because it was a part of making books.

Q. What is the purpose of Electric Ray?

A. The biggest purpose of Electric Ray is to reduce gap problems. I have seen many unfair situations in my life. As an example, there were a disabled daughter and her mother on the subway I took one day. An old man was staring at them for a long time, giving them a strange look. It was a gap from misconceptions of the disabled. I was upset of that situation, but I don't want to just end with grumbling. Instead, I want to do rational and meaningful things to solve gap problems. I think publishing books can be solutions to improving people¡¯s perceptions. There is also an economic problem, so I distribute scholarships for the graduate students who major in philosophy. I¡¯m trying to narrow the regional gap as well as the economic gap. I¡¯m offering lectures to people regardless of the region and am going to do a YouTube broadcast from next month.

Q. Please tell us the difficult things you have experienced while running Electric Ray.
A. I'm losing a lot of money each month. I'm a private business person by law, but Electric Ray has the personality of academic institution. So as not to change the personality, I'm the last person to receive money for my labor. In addition to economic problems, it is tough when people around me look down on my work. I was angry at first but I just decided to take a firm stand in my position. I think that they could be my sponsors someday. Despite these problems, I keep operating Electric Ray because I believe it is meaningful.

Q. What have been rewarding experiences?

When books have been printed, there have been more printing accidents than I expected. Opening the books made me nervous but I become very excited when the books are printed well. In addition, when people who participated in study clubs kept coming out, I also felt rewarded and grateful. I think it is proof that I'm doing well. I have one more good memory. It was when I published dissertations which were not translated in Korea.

Q. Is there something special when you prepare for a lecture?
A. I think the most important thing in teaching is helping the students understand, as I mentioned above. I create sets of documents every week so that I can go ahead as planned. I organize sentences which they need to know in advance and give them to study group members. They can understand well by reading core sentences. I also try to explain specific meanings of words when they change in the context, because it could make them quite confused.

Q Do you have any goals for Electric Ray in the future?
A. Electric Ray has 1,300 sponsors now and its goal is to have 1,500 sponsors. The second goal is to distribute books continuously for the next generation without any books being out-of-stock. Aside from Electric Ray, I¡¯m also working on another job as a private tutor, but my long-term goal is to work full-time on Electric Ray and get paid for it. I wish to deal with different topics each day of the week during lecturing, putting more time into Electric Ray.

Shim Hyebeen  ahdishim@naver.com

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