2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Huang (1921-2013). Mr. Huang has devoted his life to the study of Marxism and has made outstanding achievements in the history of philosophy and basic theory in this field. Not only that, but he also sublimated into in-depth thinking on the meta-problems of philosophy and the system construction system, and elaborated many important ideas. Among these ideas, what made me feel most deeply was that he spared no effort in defending the "scientificization of philosophy" in his later years and put forward the idea of "a more complete and rigorous construction of a Marxist philosophical system". Frankly speaking, the academic community has different views on this idea and proposition, especially in the so-called "postmodern" atmosphere, and even seen as a manifestation of the "outdated" and "outdated" way of thinking. However, in the era of globalization, compared with the evolution of intellectual history and the practice of contemporary social development, the profound meaning of "scientific philosophy" has become more and more prominent. It not only has rich theoretical connotations, but also has important practical value. In this article, I would like to express my feelings for the memory of Mr. Huang.
Mr. Huang Fengsen
One
Mr. Huang's concept of "scientificization of philosophy" stemmed from his rigorous training in natural sciences (physics) and philosophy (German classical philosophy) at Southwest United University and Peking University in his early years. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Huang turned to the study of Marxist philosophy and regarded it as a lifelong career pursuit, and eventually became the pioneer of disciplines such as the history of Marxist philosophy and anthropology in China. The key point is that he brought his firm faith, scientific spirit and methods into the professional research field, and promoted the "scientificization" of Marxist research in China. In a "self-statement" in his later years, Mr. Huang described his 70-year philosophical career as "summed up in one sentence: exploring the scientific path of philosophy." He divided this road into three stages: the 10 years before the founding of New China - "searching up and down in the philosophical labyrinth"; the 30 years before the reform and opening up - "slowly advancing on the scientific road of philosophy"; and the 30 years after the reform and opening up - "bravely moving forward on the scientific road of philosophy". As the title of this "self-report" indicates, Mr. Huang's life can be said to be truly "walking on the scientific road of philosophy."
As we all know, Mr. Huang's academic views are clear and consistent. He is a well-known "dialectical materialist" in the field of Marxist philosophy in China, and this proposition is based on the connotation and logic of "scientificization of philosophy". Mr. Huang once summarized his main points in seven aspects: "1. Philosophy is a discipline; 2. In the process of the development of human understanding, any discipline will sooner or later develop into a science, and philosophy will not be an exception; 3. The task of the construction of philosophical disciplines is to build philosophy into a science or promote the scientific nature of philosophy; 4. Each science has its own specificity, but their fundamental attributes as science are the same, that is, authenticity, integrity, rigor, and development, that is, scientificity; 5. The four natures are manifested by the ideological system as the carrier; 6. The scientific ideological system has several conditions, which are: clear objects, appropriate components, true content, and the order of reasonable principles, consistent with the essence of the spirit of the times; 7. The system of Marxist philosophy is measured by these conditions' Dialectical materialism and historical materialism', which basically meet these conditions, but there are inconsistencies, must be based on inheriting its scientific nature, in accordance with the requirements of the scientific system of the construction of the discipline to build the scientific system of contemporary Marxist philosophy. "Without a high degree of self-consciousness and unswerving adherence to this concept, such a refinement of the analysis cannot be done."
Mr. Huang's lifelong specific research work and its achievements are the practice and embodiment of this "scientific philosophy" intention. This is particularly evident in both textual research and system construction. In addition to the translators of the Central Compilation Bureau, Mr. Huang can be said to be one of the earliest experts in China to carry out in-depth research on Marxist texts and documents. Since the 1960s and 1970s, he has conducted case studies of the texts of Lenin's Philosophical Notes and other works. The screening of the writing process and arrangement scheme of this note, the careful interpretation of its complex ideological content, the comparison with Hegel's "Logic", and the evaluation of the intellectual historical status and practical value of the "Philosophical Notes" are typical "textual studies" from today's point of view. For this reason, after the reform and opening up, Mr. Huang successively presided over the compilation of "History of Marxist Philosophy" (eight volumes), "Anthropological Theory and History" (three volumes) and "Innovative Research on Marxist Philosophy" (four volumes), which is a landmark major achievement in the "scientificization" of Marxist philosophy. In order to emphasize the clear intention and idea of this effort, Mr. Huang also specially named his two self-selected works "The Scientific Road of Philosophy" (Beijing Normal University Press, 2005) and "The Scientificization of Philosophy" (Capital Normal University Press, 2008).
History of Marxist Philosophy
Two
Philosophy is both a theoretical system and a way of thinking. Therefore, "scientificization of philosophy" also means the rationalization of the way of thinking. The root of this view is the "new materialist" attitude of Marx to contemplate and grasp the world after achieving the "revolutionary change" of philosophy. In this sense, it can be said that Mr. Huang is the true inheritor of Marx's spirit. His proposition of "scientificization of philosophy" embodies the true essence and "scientific" essence of Marxist philosophical reform.
Marx was a thinker who grew up under the nurturing of the long-standing Western culture, and his philosophical ideas and systems were permeated and soaked with the spirit of Enlightenment, scientific rationality, and especially "new materialism". Researchers have a variety of comments on Marx and Engels, after being infiltrated by German classical philosophy, especially conceptual theory, and resolutely "moving" toward materialism. It is certainly reasonable for most commentators to sort out and grasp this transformation in the Marxist spectrum. However, if we look at this "change" of Marx's thought in the process of German philosophy and the evolution of German social development, its significance and value will be more prominent. If we look at the development process of German philosophy aside from Marx's philosophical thinking and creation, we will find that when Hegel pushed rationalism to the extreme, a huge irrationalist trend rose in Germany, including the "apocalyptic philosophy" that Schelling taught in Berlin after Hegel's death, the "self-consciousness" advocated by the young Hegelians, especially Schopenhauer's "voluntarism" and Nietzsche's "superhuman philosophy" after his death. That is to say, without Marx's "new materialism", there is no transition, buffer and transcendence between rationalism and irrationalism as a way of thinking. And that's exactly what happened. Marx was later forced into exile in England, and irrationalism dominated the social and philosophical developments in Germany and triggered profound social movements that extended into the 20th century and eventually led to great national catastrophes. Marx and Engels emphasized the materialist principles of understanding the world and the regularity of social development, and the purpose was to correct the shortcomings of the way of thinking such as voluntarism and conceptualism.
Marx implemented this philosophical change and "scientific" attitude into practical research work, especially in the writing of Capital. Capital was a work that Marx spent more than forty years and devoted almost all his efforts to writing, and it was not completed and finalized during his lifetime. The reason for this is, on the one hand, in view of the great difficulty of observing and grasping the social conditions and its changes in the era of capital, and exploring the future way out beyond capital, and even posing a huge challenge to man's ability to think; on the other hand, Marx must also construct a theoretical edifice that is related to the society of capital, but cannot be mechanically copied and simply depicted, but is relative to and match its complexity, and at the same time has an independent and self-consistent framework and logic. In turn, the revelation of the nature of capital and the dialysis of fate are completed. This is a more difficult creation of ideas than the former.
In marx's long study of political economy and the writing of Capital and its manuscripts, he spent no less time and energy on the latter aspect than on the former. Marx considered various problems and details in theoretical construction with great thoughtfulness, and gradually formed and improved the "narrative method" of capital. From the beginning of his study of political economy in 1844 until the finalization of the first volume of Capital in 1867, Marx continued to explore. The idea of writing has undergone a transformation of the structure of two volumes—three book contents—five sub-chapters—six volumes of the plan—nine contents—two major parts—three volumes and four volumes. The tortuous changes and repeated adjustments of this structure are not subjective and arbitrary, but are closely related to whether the development of the logical relationship between the object and the problem is smooth, and whether the macroscopic and overall integration of the research object is effective, because whether the design of the general framework is reasonable is the most critical factor in the success of the work. As Marx pointed out, works such as Capital "are inevitable in their details." But the structure, i.e. the whole internal connection, is a brilliant achievement of German science".
"Structure, that is, the whole internal connection" and "brilliant achievements of science", replaced by Mr. Huang's language, is "the scientificization of philosophy". Anthropological Theory and History, edited by Mr. Huang, is divided into three volumes, namely History of Western Anthropological Concepts, History of Chinese Thought, and Principles of Anthropology. Such a design attempts to "combine the theory of anthropology with the history of Chinese and Western anthropology as a whole", because in Mr. Huang's view, "the principle of anthropology and the history of anthropology are inseparable, and the principle of anthropology is the product of the long-term development of the history of anthropology". This is very similar to Marx's idea of finally designing the structure of Capital with "the 'theoretical part'; 'theoretical history part', or 'historical criticism part'". In accordance with the same line of thought, Mr. Huang presided over the larger series of "Research on Marxist Philosophical Innovation" in his later years, which was divided into four volumes and five volumes, the first three volumes studied the premise of the era of philosophical innovation, namely "The Spirit of the Times and Marxist Philosophical Innovation", "Modern Science and Technology and Marxist Philosophical Innovation" and "Contemporary Research on Chinese and Western Philosophy and Marxist Philosophical Innovation", and the fourth volume was "Contemporary Construction of Marxist Philosophical System" (divided into two volumes). In addition to the "Introduction" to the basic problems of Marxist philosophy as a science, other parts of this system include "one subject" and "five departmental philosophies": the subject is the dialectical materialist world view, and the departmental philosophy is the historical view, anthropology, epistemology, value theory, and methodology. Mr. Huang's efforts to compile this series of books, especially the volume "Contemporary Construction of the Marxist Philosophical System", can really be said to be painstaking. As a member of the research group and the author of the relevant chapters of this volume, I have a deep feeling about this.
Anthropological Theory and History
Three
The concept and proposition of "scientificization of philosophy" are more practical. Especially for academic research and innovation (including philosophy) and the correction and cultivation of ways of thinking in the era of globalization, it can prompt us to conduct deeper reflection and criticism.
Mr. Huang is a contemporary of the Communist Party of China. We have seen that over the past hundred years, under the strong leadership of the Party, especially after the arduous efforts made in the more than 70 years since the founding of New China and more than 40 years since the reform and opening up, socialism with Chinese characteristics has shown great vitality. Regrettably, however, our current state of academic and theoretical research is not satisfactory compared to the rapidly evolving practice. As far as the current situation of philosophical research is concerned, in terms of team composition, research horizons and theoretical tendencies, the overall pattern is basically composed of the research of the three scientific disciplines of traditional Chinese philosophy, Western philosophy and Marxist philosophy. There is an intention to integrate and meet between the three, but the degree of integration and rendezvous is extremely limited. The more important problem is that there are not a few scholars in the three schools who are confined to their respective subject areas and special research objects, forming a single thinking and value concept that is firmly drawn.
For example, some traditional culture researchers regard China's future development as a one-sided cultural problem, and the construction of culture is regarded as only a revival of traditional culture, believing that a culture that grew up and developed in the long era of agricultural civilization can become the mainstream or master of China's future culture and even world culture without being transformed by modernity. For example, with the deepening of the process of reform and opening up and the intergenerational change of scholars with different knowledge structures, important progress has been made in the study of Western philosophy, especially modern and contemporary Western philosophy; but in addition to rejoicing, we cannot ignore many hidden worries: we have produced many experts on the study of certain genres and figures, but there are few commentators who can see through them from a larger scope and higher conditions than the research objects, so as to effectively grasp the general trend of the development of Western philosophy and ideological trends; what needs more attention is that some commentators have abandoned their critical positions , unprincipled obedience and acceptance, the excuse of "avant-garde", "new wave", "modern", only "new" is from, only "foreign" is the top, becoming a part of the researcher's mentality. In the study of Marxist philosophy, there are many articles and works that do not follow the general principles, paths and norms of academic research, and their results cannot withstand the examination of time and doctrine. A large and inappropriate discussion does not contribute to the accumulation of scholarship itself, nor does it have a profound insight into practical problems. All these have influenced the academic reputation of Chinese Marxist philosophical research.
The above-mentioned research by Marx and Mr. Huang shows that system construction is a complex and difficult process. But now there are not a few commentators who simply ignore this complexity and difficulty, and some people even outline and concoct "theoretical models and theoretical systems" at will in an article "based on the theoretical interest and academic motivation of academic and chemical interpretation, academic expression, and systematic construction". In short, in the current philosophical research, we not only have few major achievements that are not only in line with the drastic changes of the times, but also have advanced and transcendent, but have degenerated in terms of "scientificization".
The above situation in the academic circles is undoubtedly affected and contaminated by the social atmosphere. Looking at the world, the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics is only a special phenomenon and landscape. As far as the world as a whole is concerned, human development is becoming more and more complex and difficult. The recession caused by the financial crisis in previous years has not been fundamentally alleviated, and the new crown pneumonia epidemic has spread again, pushing the whole world into an even more unpredictable situation. In this case, the conflicts of interest between states, the collusion and separation between power and capital, the contradiction between critical treatment and long-term consideration, the constraint between the subjective will of the individual and the overall coordination of society, the dislocation between motivation and effect, the conflict between theory and action, and the antagonism between rationality and irrationality are mixed together and intertwined. What is particularly worrying is that not a small number of people behave very extremely in terms of attitudes, speeches and practices, often bringing emotions based on personal life experience and encounters into the comments on social problems, indiscriminately and without distinguishing between the object levels, blindly praising or denouncing society, praising or denigrating reality without principle, irrationally adhering to single values, and even extremely naïve and irresponsibly pointing directions and prescribing prescriptions for the solution of problems. The proliferation of such extremist thinking and the venting of irrational emotions have even become a kind of "public nuisance". This is not only completely useless, but on the contrary, it often confuses the public opinion, disrupts order, delays or even hinders the solution of the problem.
Filtering out the wind and dust of the times and facing the grim reality, the light of truth, rational thinking and the power of logic are more and more prominent. Mr. Huang's concept and proposition of "scientific philosophy" enlightens us that we must carry forward dialectical methods, rational attitudes, scientific spirit and overall thinking.
(About author:Nie Jinfang, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Department of Philosophy, Peking University, Vice President of the Chinese Society for the History of Marxist Philosophy)