"One Does Not Age While Growing"

On the 27th, Yonsei University Philosophy Department Emeritus Professor Kim Hyung-seok Invited for Dongdaemun Distinguished Lecture
Centenarian Philosopher Delivers Message of Hope to Residents

Professor Kim Hyung-seok Special Lecture

Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul (Mayor Ilpyeong Lee) held the first “Dongdaemun Celebrity Lecture Opening Happiness” of the year on the 27th, inviting Professor Hyungseok Kim (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Yonsei University) under the theme “Learning Happiness Studies in Dongdaemun-gu from a 100-Year-Old Philosopher.”

On that day, Professor Kim delivered valuable teachings on happiness and life to an audience of more than 500 people gathered before him.

He said that the biggest reason he, who started as an elementary school teacher, became a professor and is still able to lecture and write even after surpassing 100 years of age, is “reading,” emphasizing that continuous reading and studying allow one to grow regardless of age.

He also advised a resident in their 70s who said they lost the will to live after retirement, “Do not say you are old until you reach 80. Make many new friends and try doing the things you have always dreamed of but couldn’t for various reasons. Your 70s are the golden years of life when a person can mature even more.”

Professor Kim emphasized, “Having lived to 100, the secret to not aging is living happily,” adding, “Happiness is given through the effort, process, and achievement of living humanely, and as long as you are growing, you do not age.”

After the lecture, when a teenage boy who came for a commemorative photo said, “Thank you. I will take this as a guide for my life,” Professor Kim responded with a bright smile, “Thank you as well.”

Ilpyeong Lee, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, who stayed until the end, said, “The process of practicing the goal of becoming a spiritual leader of the nation by looking at poet Yoon Dong-ju and novelist Hwang Sun-won was especially moving,” and added, “I will keep Professor Kim’s words, ‘The more you give, the happier you become,’ in mind and strive to lead the district administration in the direction desired by the residents to create a happy Dongdaemun-gu for all.”

Professor Hyungseok Kim was born in 1920 in Unsan, Pyeonganbuk-do, served as a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Yonsei University for 31 years from 1954, and has been actively lecturing and writing even at the age of 104 after retiring in 1985.