Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 4, 2021

 

A Changing World and the Revival of a Historical Perspective

(Abstract)

 

Chen Lixin

 

Since its beginning, the modern world has taken capital as its guiding principle. With the advance of history, the inherent contradictions of the principle of capital have by now been confronted with a change of course. Historical materialism combines the principle of “reality/contradiction” with that of “history/development.” Concretely applied to the analysis of capitalist society, this provides ideological resources for the revival of the historical perspective in a changing world marked by “the rise of the East and the decline of the West.” A view guided by historical materialism is rooted in the thematic orientation of historicity, which can effectively guide insights into the nature of human activity and contemporary society, thus has a theoretical advantage in grasping current world problems. The tendency to delocalization and neutrality in current Chinese philosophical scholarship is consciously or unconsciously far distant from the realities of Chinese society. Only when rooted in the process of real life, basing itself on the objectivity of the life-world, and grasping the historical nature of facts can philosophy truly “let the facts speak” and thus demonstrate its own existential meaning as it participates in contemporary issues.