和谐与竞争:中西文化精神新论

Harmony and Competition: New Theory on Chinese and Western Cultural Spirit

文化精神是人类文化活动和文化现象历经传承积累而凝聚出的共有的、成体系的精神内涵和价值取向。在解决人与自然、人与社会以及人与人之间的矛盾过程中,中华民族侧重矛盾的同一性,化生了悠久灿烂的和谐文化精神;西方民族偏向于矛盾的斗争性,演绎成为颇具个性的竞争文化精神。前者追求“天人合一”,讲究“中庸之道”,提倡“协和万邦”;后者主张认识改造自然,强调个性和个人的权益神圣不可侵犯,并力图征服世界。两种文化精神的核心差异是追求“仁义”境界与实现“功利”目标的差异。当代社会,应把两种文化精神辩证地统一起来:在和谐中讲究竞争,在竞争中追求和谐。这也许是人类文明进步与发展的最佳机制。

Cultural spirit is the mutual and systematic spiritual connotation and value orientation inherited and condensed in human activities and cultural phenomena. In the course of resolving conflicts between man and nature, man and society and man and man, Chinese nation emphasizes the identical nature of contradiction, and thus has developed the culture of harmony; western nation emphasizes the contending nature of contradiction, and has formed the cultural spirit with individuality as its focus. The former pursues“The unity of man and nature”, and“The way of mean”, advocates “ be in harmony with various nations”; the latter pursues the knowledge and improvement of nature, values the divine nature of the right of individual man, with the purpose of conquering the world. The core difference between the two cultures is the difference between the pursuit of “benevolence” and the realization of “pragmatism”. In modern society, the two cultural spirits should be dialectically united： pursuing competition in harmony and pursuing harmony in competition. This might be the best mechanism for the progress and development of human civilization.