Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.10, 2015

 

Reflection on the Premise of the Construction of a Philosophical Spirit in Contemporary China

(Abstract)

 

Wang Nanshi

 

In reflecting on the premise of the construction of a philosophical spirit in contemporary China, a core question is how to handle the relations between tradition and immediate reality. To be successful, such construction has to take into account both modern life and traditional culture. Chinese liberalism, linked as it is with scientism, and the road taken by modern Neo-Confucianism with its attempt to borrow from Hegel’s dialectics, are often consciously or unconsciously based on a particular premise, and are both insufficient to provide a reasonable answer to the question of how to critically inherit traditional culture in contemporary China’s actual conditions. Marx’s philosophy provides a way to resolve this question that is filled with the sense of reality and takes both sides into account. At the same time, it has profound cultural implications, and thus offers a helpful theoretical resource for the construction of the philosophical spirit in contemporary China. The key point is to intrinsically connect the national tradition’s modern cultural ideals with the actual life of society in a dialectical manner unlike that of Hegel, which is based on the subject entity of absolute spirit. This kind of connection can on the one hand find a foundation in reality for the construction of cultural ideals while at the same time constantly absorbing the wisdom and resources of fine traditional culture, and can on the other hand establish a transcendental objective for modern society on the basis of looking toward the future, thus providing normative principles and ultimate meaning for real life.