The Soul's Journey of Modern European Academic Thought - On the Historical Possibility of the Three-Division Theory of Western Learning and the Mediation Theory

Author: Yu Wenjie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book studies the history of the formation, development, and transformation of three major disciplines—philosophy, aesthetics, and ethics—formed based on human psychological elements—knowledge, emotion, and will. Through the research of this historical issue, it focuses on the internal connection between the evolution of Western academic tripartite thought and the process of human civilization. It particularly explores the possibility of humans, as natural beings, becoming virtuous beings through the mediation of aesthetics. It also strives to retrieve the cultural roots of the failure of enlightenment and the loss of virtue, and seeks to uncover the historical mission and future prospects of modern academia in rebuilding the virtue of modern people. The full text is divided into four parts:
Part 1, The Footprints of Plato and Aristotle: The Intellectual Origins of the Academic Tripartite Theory. The article argues that the ancient Greek period was the earliest source of the academic tripartite thought. Ancient Greece can be divided into two periods: the pre-Socratic era and the post-Socratic era. The pre-Socratic era was a time when Greek and Hebrew cultures coexisted harmoniously, a period of balanced development between reason and divinity. The arrival of Socrates, particularly Aristotle, made the material world more prominently visible in the realm of human reason. The psychological classification that emerged in Plato's thought took shape as a theory and ideological form in Aristotle's academic system. It was also during this period that the trend of philosophy interpreting religion began to take shape. However, the philosophy centered on reason lacked the support of science and technology, leading to an era of mysterious, distorted, and alienated religion.
Part 2, The Fate of Hume and Kant Philosophy: The Contemporary Status of the Academic Tripartite Theory. The article argues that after the Renaissance, the Reformation, and especially the Enlightenment, the modern civilization of humanity, particularly the development of science and technology, added tremendous vitality to human reason. During this period, God was no longer sacred, and humans became the center of modern civilization. Rousseau's humanistic thought, Diderot's encyclopedia, and especially Hume's theory of human nature formally transformed the theoretical, creative, and practical discipline ideas of the ancient Greek era into the knowledge forms of philosophy, aesthetics, and ethics. Kant was the synthesizer of this theory and ideological system. However, it was also during the Kantian era that a subjectivity philosophy centered on humans replaced the religious philosophy centered on God, completing the era of philosophy interpreting religion. Although Kant's later years were deeply immersed in Christianity and romantically expressed an infinite pursuit of divinity, all of this could not resist the historical trend of the Kantian humanistic philosophy as the main body and rational enlightenment as the core.
Part 3, Saying Goodbye to the Weber and Simmel Era: The Social Turn of the Academic Tripartite Thought. The rise of humanism, the flourishing of the rational spirit, and the formation of nation-states and the development of science and technology provided the historical background and ideological sources for the birth of the social qualities of academic thought in the Weber and Simmel era. The demystification of the world, ascetic thought, and the pursuit of national politics constituted the basic qualities of Weber's academic thought. Although Weber also fully demonstrated his critique of technological reason and even paid attention to the significance of art and aesthetics for modern people, all of this was entirely insignificant compared to the basic qualities of his academic thought. This was because, after the Reformation, while demystification emerged, so did re-mystification. Secularization, technologization, and powerification, among other alienated forms, were crazily devouring the sacred spirit of virtue. The academic tripartite thought had transformed, and human civilization was facing an irredeemable crisis! After the Weber and Simmel era, the academic tripartite thought changed. As Bell said, the academic tripartite theory is technology-economy, politics, and culture, and it is also the main force of the contradictions of modern capitalist culture. During this period, the consequences of philosophy replacing religion were fully exposed. This is: the death of God and the death of humanity, which will become the inevitable fate of history!
Part 4, Why Can Humanity Not Die: The Academic Tripartite Thought and the Fate of Humanity. The article argues that modern enlightenment, although it began with humanism, in fact, increasingly inclined toward human rationality, i.e., narrow rational enlightenment. Under the background of the demystification of divinity and the rise of technology, this enlightenment gradually lost human emotional taste and moral concern. Therefore, we believe that enlightenment must first shift from rationality to the heart, to the overall heart centered on emotion and virtue. Second, in the era of the powerful empire of technological reason, aesthetics, like ethics, became a sacrifice of secularization, technology, and power, either as a slave or as an ornament, having lost its pure and free mediating quality. Modern people cannot use this to transform themselves from natural beings into virtuous beings, unless the era of secularization, technology, and power dies. This book adheres to the basic views of Marxism, denying any religious elements as superstition and ignorance, affirming the religious theology as a cultural form, respecting the legitimacy of religious theology as an independent discipline, and focusing on the divine qualities in religious ethics for the internal connection with the humanistic spirit in the philosophy of knowledge. Through the historical study of the relationship between European modern academic thought and human civilization, it highlights the penetration and driving force of noble faith and pure hearts on the development of many humanistic science thoughts and the entire human civilization, seeking a path of hope for modern people to achieve the mission of transforming necessity into freedom!