The debate over East and West, past and present

Author: Gan Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The issue of "modernity" inevitably causes great confusion for Chinese intellectuals who are contemplating the path of China's modernization, because it implies that the process of modernization is not merely the victory of positive values, but also accompanied by immense negative values. Freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—these fundamental positive values can only be successfully established in a commercialized society. However, a commercialized society inevitably leads to the "loss of sanctity" by dismantling cultural traditions. Moreover, the almost unavoidable "fetishism of commodities" and "reification" in such a society, along with the rampant "mass culture," make intellectuals strongly feel the decline of spiritual life and the collapse of value foundations in modern society. The fundamental dilemma humanity faces in modern society lies precisely in this. The position of Confucianism in the modern world lies in: steadfastly upholding the concern for value rationality, preserving the tradition and vitality of humanistic culture, and fully advancing toward new forms and dimensions of humanistic research in an industrial and technological society where instrumental rationality inevitably dominates. Such a stance can be called "a critical cultural conservatism." This book comprehensively elaborates on the critique of modernity in the 1980s and the transformation in the 1990s, five key topics of Chinese culture discussions in the 1980s, and the shift from "the critique of reason" to "the critique of culture."