October 20, 1994: Vol26n7: PERSONALITIES: War, danger marked start of Cho's career

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
In 1968, Kah-Kyung Cho was completing his assignment at UB and
preparing to return home to Seoul, South Korea.
	A visiting Fulbright professor from Seoul National University,
Cho had spent two years working in the philosophy department with his
personal and intellectual hero, the late Marvin Farber. Just as his
scheduled departure neared, the North Koreans captured an American
naval intelligence vessel, the U.S.S. Pueblo, which had strayed into
Korean waters, and took its 82 crew members captive. The international
incident, which went on to last for a year, sparked fears of
rekindling the Korean War.
	Fearing for ChoUs safety, Farber insisted he not go back.
RBut, I told him Korea has been like this for 4,000 years,S recalls
Cho, RIUm really not worried.S Although exchange professors were
supposed to return to their university of origin, Farber was
insistent. In the end, his persistence prevailed. Cho has remained at
UB, and gone on to succeed Farber as one of the leading American
scholars in the philosophical field of phenomenology.
	Phenomenology, a philosophical school of thought that grew out
of the teachings of German philosopher Edmund Husserl, explores the
development of human consciousness and self-awareness as a preface to
or a part of philosophy. The journal Philosophy and Phenominological
Research, the most respected international journal of scholarly works
in this field, was published at UB for 40 years by Farber, who himself
studied under Husserl.
	RIt is as much a presuppostion as a philosophy grounded in
subjectivism,S explained Cho, Rwhich reflects upon the act of
consciousness rather than the object itself. You can think of it as
examining the way things would appear to our consciousness; a form of
pure seeing.S HusserlUs theories would reveal a Rcompletely
transparent consciousness,S Cho said, that could break down conscious
acts into their constituent influences. 
	Clearly, this is not the stuff most of us would mull over a
couple of beers on a Monday night. But for Cho, it has been the
foundation of a 25-year career whose accomplishments have brought him
international recognition. In 1990, Cho was honored with a SUNY
ChancellorUs Award for Excellence in Teaching and earlier this year,
he was designated a Distinguished Teaching Professor, the highest
faculty rank in the SUNY system, by the SUNY Board of Trustees.
	Cho, who has written four books on phenomenology, recently
became one of three editors of a worldwide phenomenological journal,
Orbis Phaenomenologicus. He also served, in the T60s, as cultural
advisor to Gen. Park Chung Hee, who went on to become South KoreaUs
president.
	In 1989, Cho was keynote lecturer at an international meeting
in Japan on RNature, Technology and Art.S What was unique about this
appearance was that the entire symposium focused on a single sentence
in one of ChoUs books.
	From ChoUs Consciousness and Nature, published in German and
Japanese, came the Saarland Artists Association symposium theme: RIn
this age of modern technology and ultra-modern technology, it is all
the more urgent to rethink how the origin of the Greek term techne was
closely intertwined with what later has become separated from it as
art and the esthetic.S
	But before enjoying his current fame, Cho had to overcome more
than his share of obstacles. The Korean War, which erupted when Cho
was an undergraduate at Seoul National University, left most of South
KoreaUs higher educational institutions in ruins. RMost schools were
closed down and there were heavy casualties among young people in
South Korea,S Cho said. ROf the students in my department, 25 were
killed or captured by the North Koreans. I was one of two to finish
the program.S
	ChoUs dream of continuing his education meant he would have to
reach Japan, where universities were thriving. The only way to get
there was via a black market ferry. 		But Cho was not about
to let anything like a war stand in the way of his education. ROn my
first attempt to get to Japan, I had a 22-day odyssey trying to cross
the front line,S he said. He was captured many times, and ultimately
had to turn back. 
	A second attempt saw him get all the way to the sea before
being intercepted by the U.S. Army. RI was picked up by the 24th
Division,S Cho said, noting that he far preferred this to being
recaptured by North Koreans. RBut they needed an interpreter, so I was
it. It was safe, but it left me little hope of getting to Japan.S
	Finally, after the U.N. occupation of South Korea in 1952
calmed things down, Cho was offered a scholarship to the University of
Heidelberg, in Germany, where he became the first Korean national in
all of Europe to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy.
	Ironically, ChoUs UB career came about because of another war.
RIn 1966, seven visiting scholars were selected by Fulbright, but I
wasnUt among them,S says Cho. RHowever, one of the scholars, who was
from Vietnam, could not get out of the country. I was selected to
replace him.S