The renowned foreign philosophers' China lectures during the May Fourth era and China's “taking Russia as the teacher”

摘要

From 1919 to 1924, John Dewey and four other internationally renowned philosophers (Bertrand Russell, Paul Monroe, Hans Driesch and Rabindranath Tagore) came to China to give lectures. As a whole this constituted a magnificent cultural achievement for post war European Western studies in East Asia. The well-known Western philosophers' lectures not only transmitted information about the changing tide of modern Western thought, but more importantly, they comprised an enthusiastic and passionate response by the lecturers to the desire among Chinese intellectual circles to master this new knowledge. Therefore their lectures in reality went past the level of pure academic exchange, forming mutual interconnections with the latter. The renowned philosophers’ lectures helped sophisticate thought at the time, and also promoted the differentiation and evolution of Chinese intellectual circles, which eventually made their own mark with the Chinese belief in Marxism and “taking Russia as a teacher.” After delving into this, it will not be difficult to understand why waves arising in Chinese intellectual circles surrounded their lectures, triggering sensational debates such as those concerning socialism and “the debate on science and metaphysics.” Regardless of whether this was a conscious factor on their part or not, the lectures of the renowned philosophers expanded the nation's horizons, and in effect participated in the new cultural movement, constituting an organic part of the latter.View full textDownload full textKeywordsrenowned philosophical lectures, Chinese intellectual circles, the New Cultural Movement, John Dewey, Bertrand RussellRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17535654.2011.627116