论艾森斯塔特阐释多元现代性的逻辑

Research on the logic of multiple modernities explained by Eisenstadt

艾森斯塔特通过对自马克思及韦伯以来的社会进化理论的质疑和批判,对纷繁复杂的现代性历史的反思,采用比较历史(文明比较)的研究方法考察了现代性从起源、传播到成型的动态变化过程和发展方向,揭示了现代性沿着多样性特征展开的逻辑。他认为理解当代世界最好的方法是将它视为文化方案多样性不断解释、选择、重释、构建和重构的一个过程。理解现代性多样性的特征对于认识当今世界及其发展方向、认识具体社会的特殊现实,在理论和实践上都具有深远的意义。

S.N.Eisenstadt exposed the logic of multiple modernities through questioning and criticizing social evolution theories after Marx＇s and Weber＇s, rethinking complex modern history, making comparative historical analysis to observe dynamical process and developing orientation of modernities from origin and the spreading to ultimate shaping. He believed that the best way to understand the contempory world was to view it as a story of continual constitution and reconstituion of a multiplicity of cultural programs. Understanding the characteristics of multiple modernities is of great theoretical and practical significance to recognize the world and its developing direction, and to recognize special actuality of various societies as well.