▲On January 10th, Professor Wu Xiaoming, Senior Professor of Liberal Arts of Fudan University, Dean of Fudan College of Fudan University and President of Shanghai Philosophical Society, visited Shanghai University's "Theoretical China Famous Teachers Forum".
In 2016, Professor Wu Xiaoming published "Self-Assertion of Chinese Academia". He proposes that the true maturity of any kind of scholarship is always accompanied by the fact that it begins to get rid of its apprenticeship and acquire self-assertion, thus becoming a kind of "self-disciplined" or "self-empowering" scholarship, and that to attain self-assertion one must get rid of "external reflection" must be freed. In May 2020, he published heblieutically, Hegel's Philosophical Legacy, which once again emphasized that to inherit Hegel's philosophical legacy, scholarship must penetrate into socio-historical reality, and this must go through a process of "painstaking training".
At the beginning of 2022, at the fifth lecture of the 2021 winter semester of shanghai university's "Theoretical China Forum of Famous Teachers", Professor Wu Xiaoming combined the "new historical orientation" proposed by the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to iteratively expound on this proposition. The speech has a clear point of view and clear logic, especially the examples of the exposition are taken from the academic history of China and foreign countries, which is quite eloquent and shows the penetration of theory. The lecture hall is organized for the benefit of the reader.
▲ Professor Yan Kunru (middle), Dean of the Academy of Horse Sciences of Shanghai University, was invited to have a dialogue and asked questions about why different nationalities have different developments and why German philosophy accumulates, Professor Gao Liwei (right), Vice Dean and Head of the "Theoretical China" Pulpit Course, presided over the forum, and more than 100 teachers, students and scholars online and offline participated in the listening.
Today's topic attempts to depict a turning point that is happening or about to occur in China's academic circles: getting rid of the long-standing "apprenticeship state" and beginning to gain self-assertion, and this turning point in practice is the "new historical orientation" proposed by the Nineteenth National Congress, which is marked by the abandonment of "external reflection" and the deepening of social-historical "reality"; at the same time, the task of modernization requires us to continue to learn from the outside, to gain theoretical self-consciousness and academic self-reliance in the "hard work" of cultural integration.
I'll explain it in four parts.
The academic task facing us today: to get out of the apprenticeship state and into self-assertion
Since modernity has the decisive power at a particular stage, it first opens up world history. The Communist Manifesto says: "Since capital came into the world, it has opened up the history of the world. "This is true of material production, and it is also true of spiritual production. Marx and Engels used a term called "literature of the world." So "modernity" at a particular stage, it opens up world history. The history of the region and the nation becomes part of the history of the whole world. But the modernity brought about by capital is at the same time a power relationship, a basic relationship of domination and subordination, which subordinates the non-capitalist nation to the capitalist nation, the agricultural civilization to the industrial civilization, and the East to the West. It is precisely in such a pattern of world history that "modernization" becomes inevitable. If any nation wants to be able to survive, it must complete the task of modernization.
* Because of the need to modernize, Chinese academia has entered an "apprenticeship state" and has achieved fruitful results
▲ Because he was in the "apprenticeship state", Mr. Ma Xiangbo compiled "Ma's Wentong" with reference to Western grammar
It is precisely in such a large pattern that Chinese academia, which mainly refers to the humanities and social sciences or philosophical social sciences, has entered the "apprenticeship state" of external scholarship as a whole. Almost all of the knowledge we learn from elementary school comes from the West. Even the grammar we use, Ma Xiangbo, the author of Ma's Wentong, is written in Western grammar. When Mr. Feng Youlan talked about Zhu Xi's thought, he used the "Platonic School of China", Mr. Mou Zongsan talked about the Chinese "heaven", and he used "heaven is a transcendent, metaphysical entity", which are All Western terms.
Yet this "apprenticeship" is not only inevitable and necessary, but also positive and fruitful. Without this "apprenticeship state" of Chinese academia for more than a hundred years, we can hardly imagine what Chinese scholarship looks like today. I can even say that what is obtained in such an "apprenticeship state" cannot be overestimated in any way.
*The true maturity of scholarship lies in the ability to acquire self-assertion at a specific stage
The true maturity of an academic, however, always means that it must be able to begin to emerge from its "apprentice" state at a particular stage and acquire its self-assertion. "Self-assertion" is a term proposed by Lu Xiangshan.
Such examples are too numerous to mention in academic history.
▲ Hegel finally overtook his young teacher Schelling academically one day (right)
For example: in German classical philosophy. Schelling and Hegel were classmates, and Schelling was younger, but philosophically speaking, he was a generation older than Hegel. As a very young professor, this is rare in Germany. Hegel obediently followed, writing letters and patting his teacher's ass. Heine described it in literary terms: the student had one day ambitiously surpassed his teacher, pushed his teacher Schelling into darkness, and shaved his head. In the history of philosophy, schelling and Hegel's views are absolute views, and this "absolute view" surpasses that of Kant and Fichte.
There are also many such things in the history of Chinese thought.
For example, from the perspective of generations, Su Shi was a student of Ouyang Xiu. In that year, the main examiner of the temple examination was Ouyang Xiu, who was famous all over the world, and the grading teachers unanimously recommended a paper as the first place, and Ouyang Xiu said that the composition may come from the hands of his student Zeng Gong, let it be the second place. When the seal page was removed, it turned out to be "Sichuan Su Shi". There is an allusion in the composition " Gao Three Kills Yao Three Exemptions "Gao San Kill Yao San", and the examiners do not know where it comes from. When it came time to send out the list, the students came to thank the teacher. Ouyang Xiu asked Su Shi where the allusion came from, and Su Shi said, "Just take it for granted." "He made it up! After Su Shi left, Ouyang Xiu said to the other examiners: "Our era is over, we must let the Su Shi brothers take the lead, and they will be in the literary world." ”
Therefore, today's Chinese academia is faced with the task of constructing philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, which is a kind of Chinese academia that has got rid of the "apprentice" state and gained self-assertion, otherwise it would be impossible to have Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style.
From the "apprentice" state to self-assertion, it is the basic law of academic development and talent training
Here are three examples:
Example 1: Modern philosophy has long been an "apprentice" to theology.
▲ Hegel praises: It was Descartes who brought philosophy back to its starting point
Where did modern philosophy come from? It developed from the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages. "In medieval scholastic philosophy, philosophy was the handmaiden of theology." This "little girl" serves theology while also learning something herself. Finally one day "modern philosophy" came out of it. Its decisive sign is Descartes' famous proposition that I think, therefore I am. Hegel said: "Philosophy was in the shadow of theology for a long time, until Descartes' famous proposition returned to self-consciousness. "Descartes was a true hero, and after a long wait, he finally found a new foothold for philosophy in the mind itself, philosophy is no longer based on defending and arguing for faith, and philosophy returns to its own starting point, its own foothold." On such a foothold, modern philosophy began its prosperity and flourishing.
Example 2: The humanities and social sciences have long been "apprentices" in the natural sciences.
The "science of history" is what we call "humanities and social sciences." It is imitated from the natural sciences. For example, the mercantilists of economics, they all learned something from the "natural sciences". William Petty, who used the empiricist inductive method of the natural sciences exclusively and added mathematical forms to it, called his book Political Arithmetic. At the end of the 19th century, the critique of historical reason began, thus winning a foothold - the experience of historical science and the experience of natural science are completely different experiences, and it has finally become a self-disciplined science, a self-authorized science.
Example 3: German philosophy is freed from the "apprentice" state of other national philosophies.
From Wolff (left) to Kant (right), German philosophy transcended France and England and gained self-assertion
The first European philosophy in the 19th century was German philosophy, but the history is very short, from Kant's first book, The Critique of Pure Reason, to Hegel's last work, The Principles of the Philosophy of Law, a total of 50 years, but in the "history of philosophy" it occupies a large space, more than a thousand years in the Middle Ages, with only a few chapters. But before that, Germany had basically no philosophy compared to Britain and France, and after a long period of "apprenticeship", the Germans finally one day gained self-assertion and exploded. There are two signs that are absolutely important:
First, Wolfe began to teach and write philosophy in German. Heine said: "Latin is the language of natural materialism, the language of the chief executive issuing administrative orders, the language of the military commander issuing military orders, the language of bargaining by petty traders." Where like German, the language of true speculation. "So Wolfe is amazing. Second, Kant became the de facto founder of German philosophy. Through Wolff and Kant, German philosophy gained self-assertion and immediately blossomed, so much so that most of us who study philosophy today have to learn German.
Therefore, the scholarship between different ethnic groups also follows such a "apprentice to self-assertion" law.
The downside of a long-term "apprentice" state is dependence and conformity
▲ Hegel pointed out in Logic that "external reflection" is a kind of conformity
The long-standing "apprenticeship state" breeds a problem – dependence and conformity. Dependence, always relying on the teacher. According to the rules, Hegel called it "external reflection" in Logic. In layman's terms, it is a kind of reasoning ability that never goes deep into the substantive content of things, but it knows general principles and knows how to apply general principles to any content, and can also be regarded as "dogmatism".
* The bitter lesson of "Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks" dogmatism
For example, during the Chinese Revolution, there was a group of "dogmatic Marxisms", nicknamed "Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks", all of whom returned from studying in Russia, fluent in Russian, backwards in the Mann classics, and admired the Russian experience incomparably. Academically only, it's not generally good! Jokingly, if Xuanzang is the first returnee, they are definitely the second returnee. When lecturing in Yan'an that year, Wang Ming skillfully used the Man classics and told you the exact number of pages after memorizing them. Bogu's learning is not generally good, and many of the works of Plekhanov and Lenin are translated by Bogu. Later, he presided over Xinhua News Agency, made bowls of wine in the canteen in Yan'an, and chatted with Mao Zedong, but the wine was exhausted, and a Xinhua News Agency editorial was also written.
The task of the Chinese revolution at that time was "armed uprising in the central cities", which was the principle of Mann - violent revolution, the experience of armed uprisings in the very large cities of Russia. As a result, everyone knows, in exchange for extremely tragic failures, and even a river of blood. Today, we will reflect on whether the principles of Marxism are wrong or the Russian experience is wrong. I'm not mistaken. What's wrong? Dogmatism is wrong, dogmatic Marxism is wrong. The dogmatic way of thinking, i.e., external reflection, imposes the universality of abstraction on various objects and contents. That is why Hegel called those who "know only external reflection" "laymen" and external reflection "the pathological manifestation of the weak nature of Romanticism, the modern form of sophistry." Those words are all right.
I am really very fortunate that the Chinese Communist Party is truly remarkable, and the "apprenticeship state" is so short that it can begin to gain his self-assertion. When the Chinese Communists finally realized that the path of the Chinese revolution was the encirclement of the cities by the countryside – a combination of Marxism and the reality of the Chinese revolution – the Chinese revolution also gained the first turning point in self-assertion – the sinification of Marxism.
The dogmatism of today's scholarship comes not from the Soviet Union, but from the West. In this regard, we must have such self-understanding and self-criticism, otherwise it is impossible to get rid of the "apprenticeship state" and it is impossible to obtain self-assertion.
* Napoleon imposed French liberalism on Spain and suffered a crushing defeat
Napoleon, who was praised by Hegel as "the spirit of the world on horseback", was unable to impose French ideas on Spain
Let's take another example. In the Philosophy of History, Hegel mentions the "individual who holds the history of the world", and the West has three people - Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, and he even calls "Napoleon the spirit of the world on horseback". But on more than one occasion in The Philosophy of History and the Philosophy of Law, Napoleon was criticized for trying to impose French liberalism on the Spaniards, which ended in a tragic failure.
We have two questions: First, Napoleon was a military genius and a political genius who could produce one in five hundred years. Second, how different are the French and the Spaniards? The differences are small, and they all belong to the broad Christian world. And such a rare genius, he can not impose French liberal ideas on the Spaniards, but today we still have many Chinese scholars who subconsciously want to impose the system of other countries on China?
Finally, Hegel is quoted: "A principle or principle, even if it is true, as long as it is only a principle or principle, it is already false." "A principle or principle, a universality, must be concretized according to specific historical conditions. This "concretization" is Sinicization for the Chinese Communists. For those of us who are engaged in philosophy and social science, it is also Sinicized. In his later years, Engels told his students: Now the materialist view of history has many friends, but these friends take the principles of the materialist view of history as an excuse for not studying history, and they only impose the principles of the materialist view of history as a formula on any object and any content. So he said, "It is precisely because of this that Marx said very early: I only know that I am not a Marxist", and Marx also used heine's words to say: "I sowed the dragon seed, and the harvest was all fleas." This sentence is very heavy!
Therefore, if today's philosophical social science is to be able to get rid of its long-standing "apprenticeship state", it must be liberated from the way of "external reflection".
The self-assertion of Chinese academia has a practical basis and theoretical hallmarks
▲ The "new historical orientation" mentioned in the report of the Nineteenth National Congress is a turning point in the practice of Chinese academia
So, how is the self-assertion of Chinese academia possible and how can it be realized?
First of all, a certain practical foundation is needed, and this turning point in practice has been unfolded before our eyes, that is, the "new historical orientation" mentioned in the report of the Nineteenth National Congress and the "socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era". It is a threefold sense of independence.
* The turning point in practice has come, and China is in the triple sense of "new historical orientation"
First of all, it means that the Chinese nation has ushered in a great leap from standing up and getting rich to becoming strong, and has ushered in the bright prospects of the Chinese nation. This is a narrative about the Chinese nation, a historical narrative about the Chinese nation;
The second means that the Chinese Communists have injected strong vitality and vitality into scientific socialism in the 21st century. This is a historical narrative about world socialism;
The third means that the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the political, economic, social, cultural, institutional and other aspects has contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the overall progress and overall development of mankind. It's a narrative about world history, about human history.
Here is a look back at the historical scene of the unprecedented catastrophic setback of world socialism in the early 1990s. At that time, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe changed their flags, so that the ideological and intellectual circles at the time generally believed that this time Marx was finally sent to the grave, and the conclusions of the Communist Manifesto were finally bankrupt. This view is best represented by Fukuyama's best-selling book, The End of History. Our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, would also envision a better system called socialism that could be realized in the distant future. And today, in the vicissitudes of today's world history, it is no longer possible to believe such a thing, so world history is over, it is complete, it has no other possibilities. ”
▲ Fukuyama's prediction was shattered by reality, Derrida had a deep understanding of Marxism, and more than 20 years later, China's Marxism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, grew and became strong
I call this book "The Works of Pseudo-Hegelianism," and the postmodernist philosopher Derrida, enraged by the mindlessness, frivolity, short-sightedness, and foresight of academia, gave a series of lectures in the United States, published in a collection called The Ghost of Marx. Derrida said: "Marxism may no longer have a real existence, no longer have a physical existence after such an event, but it still exists, it is a ghostly existence." It cannot exist, because Marxism and the essence of the modern world have a specific relationship, so as long as the modern world exists for one day, it still exists, he is a ghostly existence. ”
This immediately reminds one of the first sentence of the Communist Manifesto: "A specter of communism lingers in Europe." ”
Derrida added, "The basic characteristic of a ghost is to have a body, to have a body. Derrida spent a lot of ink quoting the plot of Shakespeare's four tragedies, Hamlet, and Derrida said: "This ghostly being will tell the truth, issue instructions, and urge action." Therefore, in our time, we cannot but read Marx's works repeatedly, and we cannot but have memories of Marx, because without Marx there is no future. ”
Derrida was not a Marxist. He did not see, and we cannot ask him to see at that time, that there is a realistic and fleshly Marxism that is slowly and powerfully growing, that is, Chinese-style Marxism, that is, socialism with Chinese characteristics.
So the new historical orientation has a threefold realm of significance. It has made China's development begin to have what Hegel called "world historical significance," which is of far-reaching significance not only for the Chinese nation, but also for world socialism and for the overall development of mankind.
Therefore, Chinese scholarship to obtain self-assertion does not come out of thin air, in the words of Marx and Engels, called "sooner or later." Engels once said: "The needs of one era are more obvious than the effects of ten universities." "So I think our generation is excessive, and the task of constructing the socialist philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics, getting rid of the long-standing "apprentice" state and gaining self-assertive Chinese scholarship falls on the shoulders of your younger generation."
*Academic hallmarks are the ability to delve deeper into a particular social "reality": the essence of reality
Heidegger believes that Marx's understanding of the nature of history exceeds that of Husserl (right) and Sartre (center)
Second, chinese scholarship should gain self-assertion, and the theoretical hallmark is that it can be liberated from "external reflection" and go deep into specific social realities.
Reality is a high demand, mentioning that it is not something that we can see with our eyes, Hegel's definition of "reality is the unity of reality and essence." Engels quotes Hegel: "Reality is the necessity of unfolding. Therefore, "reality" is the essence of reality, the inevitability of the unfolding process. No theory can be attained at all.
Since modern philosophy, the only people who have been able to penetrate into reality and put reality forward as a task have been Hegel and Marx. Heidegger spoke highly of Marx's theory of history, and in his letter on humanism at the end of world war II, he said: "Marx, when he experienced alienation, went deep into the essence of history, so Marxist theory was superior to all other historiography. Only at that point can it be qualified to engage in dialogue with Marxism. The "once" here is that dimension, so Marx's theory of history is superior to that of other scholars' historiography, which carries a lot of weight.
Why? In Heidegger's view, "It seems to me that Husserl did not, nor did Sartre, did not reach that step, and only when he reached that step could he be qualified to talk to Marx." During the last late seminar in 1972, Heidegger said: "Today's philosophy knows only to follow the path of intellectual philosophy, and does not understand at all the two distinct realities of our time—economic development and the architecture required for that development." Marxism, on the other hand, understands this dual reality. "Reality" is used here, and the weight is also very heavy. Why? For he erased "the philosophy of the day."
* External learning is still needed, and it must go through the "arduous exercise of cultural integration"
▲ Hegel believes that Greece, faced with a strong and superior oriental culture, experienced a difficult combination of cultural training and gained self-assertion. This is the Greek sculpture "Destiny"
Finally, I would like to emphasize that as long as our task of "modernization" exists, learning from abroad remains, and the task of self-assertion may become even more important, because we must achieve self-reliance both theoretically and academically. This requires what Hegel calls "the arduous exercise of cultural union." ”
Where did the prosperity of ancient Greece come from? Hegel believes that it comes from the exercise of cultural union. "The ancient Greeks had both their own traditions and faced a strong and superior oriental culture," he said. It is precisely because they have experienced the arduous tempering of cultural integration that they have ushered in an era of victory and prosperity, and they have gained the vitality they deserve. ”
Nietzsche made it even clearer: for a time the Greeks were almost overwhelmed by foreign cultures, and the religion of Greece at that time was a scuffle between the various Eastern religions. There are Egyptians, Babylonians, and maybe India. But greek culture did not at last become a mechanical or decorative culture, because they remembered the adage of the Temple of Delphi— to know oneself. "They figured out their real needs in the combination of cultures, sorted out the external clutter, and did not long become followers of the East."
Dear students, this story should be remembered: why there is Greece in the "Axis Civilization". China has experienced more than a hundred years of "arduous training", and whenever the most major problems occur, it will always cause "disputes between ancient and modern" and "disputes between China and the West", which means that we are experiencing "culturally compatible training".
▲"Theoretical China Famous Teachers Forum" is a university-wide ideological and political science course of Shanghai University, which adopts online and offline methods, and is served by Professor Han Qingxiang, a leading expert of the Central Party School Expert Studio, as the academic advisor
So my basic point is that philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics are not just academics with Chinese colors and Chinese elements, but academics that have got rid of the "apprenticeship state" and have self-assertion. This is a major task facing us today, and a large part will fall on young scholars.
(Li Nian reorganized, Wang Weiji and Zhang Qingzizhen also contributed)
End-of-article link:
Chen Xueming: The Chinese-style modernization road, self-confidence yard Marx's capital critique
Author: Wu Xiaoming
Image source: Network data pictures, on-site photos provided by Shanghai University "Theoretical China"
Editor: Jin Jiuchao Li Nian
Editor-in-Charge: Li Nian