The Collected Works of Tagore The 20th Century Foreign Cultural Book Collection: The 20th Century Foreign Cultural Book Collection

Author: Ni Peigeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: At the turn of the century, the development of humanities and academia requires reflection and review, which is the need of advancing the socialist cultural cause. With the considerable accumulation achieved by domestic academia in researching contemporary Western society under the guidance of Marxism, this reflection and review has become possible. Thus, we organized scholars to translate and select the "Library of Foreign Cultural Figures of the 20th Century." "Cultural figures" is merely a colloquial term, and the selection of candidates is based on academic value. As for the selected writings in each figure's collection, they are intended to genuinely reflect the intellectual characteristics and academic perspectives of the individual, providing readers with the opportunity to analyze, study, draw inspiration from, and critique both the person and their works. Our aspirations are high, but our actions may not yet match our ideals. We sincerely look forward to the support of the academic community. Tagore's religious and philosophical thought falls within the category of objective idealism, but it is not without reasonable elements, as he focuses on phenomena and human beings, with particular emphasis on the spiritual aspect of humanity. Tagore's aesthetic thought is an extension of his religious and philosophical views. In his "My Reminiscences," he stated: "The drama 'Nature's Retribution' can be seen as the gateway to my future creative works, or to put it more precisely, it is the theme that all my writings touch upon—the joy of reaching the infinite from the finite." He believed: "Art is the response of the creative soul of humanity to the call of the highest truth." However, he also advocated seeing the infinite within the finite and moving from the finite to the infinite. Thus, he pointed out: "The connection with human life is the main characteristic of literature," and "the world's breath plays on the reed pipes of our hearts, and literature strives to reflect that melody." This is also the reasonable core within his objective idealist aesthetic thought system.