“To have intellectual conversations with others
“The most basic knowledge you must have”

The first revised and expanded edition of [The Wide and Shallow], a representative humanities textbook of our time.

Read and enthusiastically received by millions of readers, it has been a must-read for humanities students for many years.
The iconic humanities series returns with a new look.

A book that changed the landscape of the difficult and rigid humanities field.
This book became a bestseller immediately after its publication, and went on to sell over 2 million copies, becoming a double million seller, remaining a steady seller for a full five years.
A book that popularized the unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce phrase "지대NPYAP" and even spawned a TV program with a similar concept; a book that allowed ordinary people who were thirsty for basic common sense to discuss things without hesitation, view the news proactively, and take an opinion in elections; a book that was evaluated as being written in an easy and fun way for people of all ages to read, such as a book that started an 80-year-old reader to start self-studying, a middle school student reader to read humanities, and an office worker to form a book club.
All of this is an explanation of 『Broad and Shallow Knowledge for Intellectual Conversation』.


Following the new edition [Zero], a revised and expanded edition has been published for the first time in five years.
The rough and insufficient parts were gently smoothed and filled in.
Old stories have been updated to fit the times.
The stories that author Cha Sa-jang shared with many readers after the book was published helped in revising the book.
The moment you read this meticulously revised edition, you will understand why this book has remained unbroken for the past five years.

“Hey A.
Suddenly, old memories come to mind.
Whenever we wanted to eat meat, I would even lure mammoths.
While we're on the subject, let's eat some grain together to remember old times."
A recalled the past when he lived with B and helped her, and could not refuse B's request.
A said.
“Yeah, it was really fun back then.
There is grain here.
“But I’m a little tired today, so could you please clean the bathroom?”
A directive relationship has occurred.
Now A is in a position to give instructions, and B is in a position to follow instructions.
Let's think again.
How can A, who is seemingly no different from B, give instructions to B? It is because of the product that A has.
So where did A's product come from? It came from the means of production that A possessed.
In other words, if you own the means of production, you own the products, and by using those products, you gain power.
It's funny.
The means of production and the products are simple matter.
But such material things gave rise to power relations as immaterial social relations.

---From "Primitive Communist Society"

'God' is requested.
The ruler calls on God.
It doesn't matter whether God actually answers or not.
The question of whether God exists or not is not a matter of concern to the rulers.
All that is needed is a language called 'God' that the ruler himself can call.
Because God grants rulers the right to rule society.
The more one desires to rule unilaterally, the more desperate his faith appears.
---From "Ancient Slave Societies"

In order for the bourgeoisie to reject the king, they had to overcome the god who justified the king's authority.
In other words, we had to find something that could take the place of God.
To conclude, the bourgeoisie has completely replaced the role of God with human 'reason'.
Reason could fully take over the two roles previously monopolized by God.
First of all, reason answers practical questions.
We have come here through the process of evolution, and we are biological beings no different from other species.
The reason we stand on the ground is because of a force called gravity, and that force can be expressed as the product of mass and acceleration.
This gravity is another expression of universal gravitation, which is the operating principle of the entire universe.
In this way, reason could explain everything in reality without God being involved.
Next, reason also explains the afterlife of humans.
There is no afterlife.
We can talk about consciousness and mind, but we cannot talk about soul.
Talking about an afterlife is an unscientific attitude without any empirical basis, and is nothing more than a delusion steeped in religious fantasy.
There is no soul or afterlife.
Death is nothing but the cessation of bodily functions.
In the end, the bourgeoisie successfully introduced into the world a reason that justified them, replacing the God who justified the king.

---From "Medieval Feudal Society"

'Country' is requested.
The concept of the state, like the concept of God, serves to justify the ruling system.
And it especially serves the rulers' convenience by forcing 'patriotism' on them.
So patriotism is encouraged and taught at the national level.
National support is provided for procedures to reward and commemorate patriots and national benefactors, and society censors and corrects the vocabulary used to refer to them.
Conversely, those who are far from patriotic are subject to overt political and social pressure, and the vocabulary used to refer to them is harsh, insulting, and exclusive.


But the demand for the state is not unique to capitalism.
Any ruling power that cannot invoke God promotes patriotism.
Anyone who has received a reasonable education, or who wishes to engage in intellectual conversation, needs to think objectively about God and the state.
Thinking objectively about God and the state here does not mean denying their existence.
We need to carefully examine whether we have been imposing upon ourselves a socially and politically exaggerated and packaged meaning that transcends the objective meaning of God and the state.

---From "The Cold War Era"